Moving Boys Forward ST. CHRISTOPHER’S SCHOOL
CONTENTS 8
Best Practices for Boys
The Center for the Study of Boys identifies and promotes the most effective approaches to teaching boys at every developmental level.
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8
Alumni in Service
Peek into the lives of some of our currently active military alums as they reflect on their careers, how St. Christopher’s prepared them and advice they would give students.
28
Reunion Weekend
Century-old traditions pair with lifelong learning for a memorable weekend.
We continue to expand our StC archives. If you have any items you would like to donate or share, please contact Alice Flowers at 282-3185, ext. 5312 or flowersa@stcva.org.
St. Christopher’s welcomes qualified students without regard to race, color, national or ethnic origin.
Thanks to all parents, students, alumni and friends who have provided content and pictures for this publication.
Editor: Kathleen Thomas
Please send your news and photographs to thomask@stcva.org for use in an upcoming issue.
Marketing and Communications Team: Susan Cox Cappy Gilchrist Alice Flowers Mimi Burke
Member of VAIS and NAIS 711 St. Christopher’s Road Richmond, VA 23226 804-282-3185 Fax: 804-285-3914 www.stchristophers.com
Stay Connected: facebook.com/stcva @STCVA @STCVA
Contributors: Kurt Jensen ’11 Alyx McKinnon ’16 Ricky Stockel ’17 Henry Rodriguez ’18 Drew Brown ’21 Finn Gardner ’21
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2
A Message from the Headmaster
4
Chapel Talks
12
Journeys to Manhood
18
Alumni Journeys
20
Alumni in Service
26
Memorial Day Service and Chamberlayne Breakfast
28
Around Campus
34
Challenger Party 2015
36
Homecoming 2015
38 40
Performing Arts
42
Reunion Weekend 2015
55
Student News
58
Faculty News
64
Class Notes
74
New Legacies
75
Transitions
New Board Members
WELCOME W
e are all proud of the successes our boys have in academics,
We take pride that our students go on to make a positive difference in the lives
athletics, arts and other activities. At the end of the day,
of others. Brown Farinholt ’09’s ongoing Ph.D. research to understand the actors
however, nothing we do here at St. Christopher’s is more
behind targeted cyber crime and Wade Blackwood ’93’s efforts to turning
important than helping boys on their journeys to being good men.
abandoned crab pots into ecologically thriving sites that are helping boost the Bay’s blue crab population are just two examples spotlighted here.
The importance of this journey is why we are especially excited that the Center for the Study of Boys, under the direction of Dr. Kim Hudson,
Another story about three alums’ recent 50th anniversary celebration of their
is gathering such great momentum. As you’ll read in this magazine’s
post-graduation cross-country trip testifies to the strength of St. Christopher’s
centerpiece story, the center has a new home in Chamberlayne Hall, and
lifelong connections and the importance that friendship plays in helping us
stellar programming last spring and this fall seeks to inspire and uplift the
understand ourselves and our responsibility to serve others.
students, faculty and parents of St. Christopher’s as well as the broader
We hope you enjoy this issue of Moving Boys Forward. It is filled with stories and
community. The center focuses on helping the boys understand their
quotes that speak to the heart of what we seek to do each and every day here
day, however,
gifts and ensuring that the adults surrounding them have the expertise
at St. Christopher’s. Dr. Waitman Beorn ’95, who spoke to Upper School boys in
nothing we do here
necessary to inspire them to be their very best selves. Character
November, advised students not to contemplate how they would behave in the
at St. Christopher’s
development lies at the heart of our definition of leadership and our
real world since they are already there. “You simply accept greater responsibility
is more important
pursuit of best practices for boys; it is as the foundation of the school’s
than helping boys
Second Century Vision.
on their journeys to
The impact and appreciation for leadership and character development
being good men.”
here at St. Christopher’s was relayed time and time again in recent
“ At the end of the
and face greater challenges as you get older,” he said. “You must apply the ethical training that you receive here when it matters in the heat of the moment when things are not as clear as you would hope them to be.” May we all seek the hard right over the easy wrong in any situation big or small.
interviews with active military alums. This magazine pays tribute to the sacrifice and dedication they and all our military demonstrate through their service to our country.
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Headmaster Charley Stillwell
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CHAPEL TALKS Chapel speakers offer words of inspiration to the school community.
CHAPEL TALK
Avoiding the Easy Wrong The following is Headmaster Charley Stillwell’s opening chapel talk given Sept. 14. Good morning! I hope you all have felt good about these
you have to remember that not everyone reacts in the
a few years ago at another college. This school was a very highly
first two weeks of school. I have been so impressed with
same way and it is never okay. This situation at UVA was
regarded small liberal arts college whose campus was built along a hill
the energy and enthusiasm that you have brought to
so bad that it ultimately pushed one young swimmer
where the academic buildings and dorms were towards the bottom of
the campus thus far, and I hope it will be a terrific year
to quit the team and transfer to another school and
the hill and the fraternities were towards the top of the hill. There was
ahead for all of you.
now these older swimmers could face significant legal
another one of these ridiculous traditions where the fraternity pledges
Give me clean hands, clean words, and clean thoughts.
problems. What is sad is that not one of the older
at one of the fraternities would be asked to stand on the fraternity’s
Help me stand for the hard right against the
swimmers was able to step back, realize that the way
porch on Sunday mornings to cheer any male students who were
my last chapel talks in this very special, sacred place. I
these freshmen were being treated was wrong, and
walking back up to their fraternities from spending the night below with
easy wrong;
feel fortunate to have had this opportunity to be part of
find a way to help his friends stop this inappropriate
one of the female students, what they called the “walk of fame” but also
behavior.
to verbally harass and embarrass any girls walking back to their dorms
past 17 years, and I am excited to have this coming year
CHAPEL TALKS
A Boy’s Prayer
It feels strange this morning to know that this is one of
this wonderful school community with all of you for the
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“ I have always felt that the process of striving to be a “good man” often boils down to choosing the hard right over the easy wrong and realizing that it always is a choice that we are capable of making.”
Save me from habits that harm;
after staying the night in a fraternity in what they called the “walk of
Teach me to work as hard and play as fair in thy
be a great one, just as the seniors all want their last year
Another situation in this category of group wrong that
shame.” One year a young pledge felt really awkward and upset about
to go especially well.
occurred more recently is the trial of the senior boy at
being asked to do this each Sunday. He decided to bring this up with a
sight alone as if all the world saw;
St. Paul’s School, a boarding school in Concord, N.H.,
visiting professor one week to get some advice. The next week when
for his having participated in another “tradition”—the
the pledges were being told to do this job, he brought up with the
school’s “senior salute.” This tradition was one where
group that he felt dumb and embarrassed by the task. He was scared
the senior guys try in the last couple weeks of the
because he didn’t know if he would be kicked out of the fraternity.
school year to take physical advantage of as many of
Quickly several other pledges agreed that they felt the same way. The
the 15-year-old freshmen girls at the school as they
fraternity ended up discussing the issue and decided that it really was
could. For some it is alleged that they competed to see
stupid and wrong, and they ended the tradition. The courage of this
how many of the girls they could hook up with before
pledge to stand up for the hard right in a group situation led to a great
graduation, and one young girl in this situation claimed
outcome.
One thing that I have always loved about this time that we share in chapel is the chance it gives us to reflect on how we can all be our best selves and find ways to make a positive difference. This morning I wanted to take a few minutes to focus on my favorite line from “A Boys Prayer” that we say together here regularly. The line that always jumps out at me from the prayer is the one that reads “help me stand for the hard right against the easy wrong.” I have always felt that the process of striving to be a “good man” often boils down to choosing the hard right over the easy wrong and realizing that it always is a choice that we are capable of making.
that she was raped. Here again what is sad is that while some of these seniors may have known this was wrong and not participated, none were able to convince their classmates to stop. Here at school obviously we feel that
The easy wrong often becomes more challenging in
all sexual activity is inappropriate for guys your age, but
group settings.
it is especially mean spirited and sad for older, 18-yearold guys to think there is anything okay about taking
One interesting thing about the easy wrong is that it
advantage of 15-year-old girls. A power relationship
somehow seems much easier or more prevalent when
does exist between older and younger students, and you
you are in a group situation as opposed to being alone.
always have to avoid taking advantage of any kind of
It is interesting how our judgment can be very different
power relationship with another person.
when we get caught up in the moment with a group. What is interesting about both these incidents is that we There have been two really unfortunate examples of
are talking about nice kids for the most part, kids just
group wrongs that have hit the media this past summer
like you who, if we spent time with them individually,
that you probably encountered. The first was a hazing
would strike us I am sure as being people who certainly
incident with the UVA swim team that happened last
know right from wrong and care about doing the right
year but is now becoming a legal trial, and someone
thing. In these group situations, however, their judgment
sent me the court documents recently. The allegation
about choosing the hard right to speak up and to
is that there has been a tradition on the swim team
stop these sad and inappropriate moments go out the
where the older guys make the freshmen do all kinds
window. This is where another phrase we use regularly,
of really dumb, inappropriate, and illegal things. What
“being our brother’s keeper,” comes into play. It is crucial
is shocking is that these papers included the text from
that we help each other to stand for the hard right and
amazingly ridiculous emails that were sent from five
that we find a way to ask for help when we sense that
older swimmers using the name “Mr. Mean” to tell the
the things going on around us are wrong but when we
freshmen to do all these awful things and to describe
are not sure what to do.
the freshmen with all kinds of obscene language. While teams often want to believe this treatment of freshmen
A great example of the benefit of trusting your gut and
is just some kind of fun teasing and bonding challenge,
asking for help to gain judgment and courage occurred
So as you guys bump into various group moments this year, on the senior porch, at someone’s house on a Friday night, sitting at the lunch table, I hope you won’t get sucked into one of these easy, group wrongs. And if you do find yourself in a situation where someone in the group or a couple of guys are being mean to someone here or to some of the girls up the street or to anyone anywhere or are taking advantage of one of these power relationships, I hope you will have the courage to step back, ask for help if you need it, and push back to make it stop. Every single one of you guys has the courage and the compassion to stop these wrongs. Ultimately there is no better way to be a real man.
Forgive me when I am unkind, and help me to forgive those who are unkind to me; Keep me ready to help others at some cost to myself; Send me chances to do a little good every day and so grow more like Christ. Amen
CHAPEL TALK
Trochees, Lineman, and One Pear Tree StC Writer-in-Residence Ron Smith gave the following chapel talk during reunion weekend May 2, 2015.
CHAPEL TALKS
I’ll start with a poem. This is my centennial poem. I began it at least a year before the school’s centennial—and finished it (if I have finished it) three years after the school’s centennial.
8 | StC
The piece is sort of an investigation of the context of Dr. Chamberlayne’s School—of the year 1911 and what else was going on in that year. Don’t worry about recognizing every item or figure that flies by; part of the aim is to dazzle you with detail from all over the world. Toward the end, the word trochees appears; now, I certainly expect all of my former students to know that is a poetic foot the opposite of an iambic foot. So: duh DUM is an iamb; DUH dum is a trochee. Yes, later today there will be a quiz for my former students. 1911 A stone fell from the sky into Egypt, (killed a dog), Cubism into the language, Madox Ford onto the floor, rolling . . . Marinetti slapped a Londoner with a fine Italian glove. Rome unveiled its wedding cake, Richmond a school on Grove for gentlemen, scholars. Hundreds of words for snow fell on the baffled Eskimo, Edward Weston’s Tropico stretched under the palms, and Rorschach smeared suggestive shapes we all pretended not to see. Tolstoy had his first year being dead, Cavafy sailed off in all directions, Yeats moved upon the shadowy waters . . . Hubert Humphrey saw the light, Mahler, Gilbert, Pulitzer the dark, George Moore lugged his crystal ideals
off to Cambridge . . . Portugal pulled the plug on the One True Church, and China killed already-dead Confucius just as FDR entered the New York Senate. They just kept coming, trochees tumbling: Ronald Regan, William Golding, bawling babies, pure potential! Not to mention a star fell in Egypt, killed a dog, and the world began anew.
McVey, Gee,
mocking the duty he was required to perform
expressing surprise that God could actually
McVey, Gee,
(and maybe mocking the Bible) and he was
bring it off! Really, he said, you should say,
Walmsley—there’s a rhyme! Hear it? “Gee/
doing it so well that I could see he was going
“God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was
Walmsley”!
to get away with it. “What?” he would say, “I
light”—an expression of wonder, the right kind
and finally McVey, Lewis
was just smiling.”
of wonder.
When he finished, the Headmaster, George
In the beginning was the word. God said,
McVey called out his name and told him to go
Let there be light and there was light. As
Sotos, Collier, Andrews, Thornhill, Walmsley—
straight home and “stay there until I call you.”
a philosopher has written, “The world is a
and two McVeys. So there you have it: the
He was suspended for disrespect.
poem whose poet is God.”
Back then, I was either an atheist or an
Well, if we can see the world as a poem, we
agnostic—I don’t remember exactly what
can see St. Christopher’s as one. And Doctor
I want to thank those young men (at least
stage my spiritual confusion had reached at
Chamberlayne, not exactly God, wrote its
they used to be young men) for their tenacity,
that time. But I can tell you this: that action
first draft.
their dedication to their team and this
by the Headmaster is one of the reasons I’ve
school, their exceptional mental and physical
been here for forty-three years.
(I welcome suggestions for rhymes with Lewis.)
McVeys are the weirdos—the only iambs among a pack of trochees.
poem—but not a perfectly structured
players I coached and my fellow coaches,
narrative—maybe a prose poem. StC
especially Dick Kemper, for their patience
is something more like the novel The
with me, a young coach who probably
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. There
worked his players too hard.
are episodes that have nothing to do with advancing the plot and episodes of comedy
Hard work, persistence, dedication,
very similar to Mark Twain’s. Like the night
toughness--what do they add up to?
a student came upon a senior master at
Character, the fundamental value of a St.
StC washing one of the vans in a highly
Christopher’s education.
unusual manner. Or the time the student Hill Carter hung the Headmaster out the
We are a church school—which, in our case
window of the faculty room by his ankles.
has meant that we refuse to sever religious
Or the time George Squires, Chair of the
history and religious content from academics,
English department, insisted that I witness his
and morality from intellectual activity. It does You might think I didn’t leave enough out of that poem. But Ty Cobb hit .420 that year, and I just couldn’t get him in.
of the literary magazine—a harangue, really
dogmatic; but it does mean that we can talk
an extended and vindictive insult that went
about the Judeo-Christian and other literary and spiritual traditions upon which so much
That was a poem or at least it’s written in verse—and it even has a little bit of rhyme—but let me point out—especially to George McVey, who’s been giving me a hard time for decades for not writing like Robert Service or Rudyard Kipling. Oh, did you hear that? Trochees: RObert SERvice, RUyard KIPling!— anyway, let me point out that the verse of Homer, Virgil, The Beowulf poet, Milton, Wordsworth, and Mr McVey’s favorite, Walt Whitman, does not rhyme.
to hear the wonderful sermons of Melissa
So, maybe I have an epic here for you--a stripped down epic, a miniature epic. Here’s the list of the noseguards from the twelve years I coached football. Here are the players in those twelve years, each in his slot. Every one made All-Prep over these twelve years:
agonizing excoriation of dozens of members
not mean that we are narrowly Christian or
Meteorites, baseball--everything’s a poem to me.
Nonrhyming poetry uses repetition as one of its ordering elements. And one of the signal characteristics of the epic is the catalogue—or list.
What kind of poem is it, then? A narrative
toughness. And I want to thank all of the
on for at least thirty minutes because the editors had rejected a perfectly good poem
contemporary life is based. And we get
simply because it had curse words in it. Or the time a hungover teacher arriving late to
Hollerith. However, it wasn’t the sternness of
class barked as if he were a dog—actually
When I first arrived at StC—after attending
St. Christopher’s that attracted me. Quite the
barked an irritating student out of his room.
public schools in Georgia and the University
opposite. On the afternoon I interviewed for
Or the time Reno Harp—a less than swift
of Richmond—I wasn’t too sure about that
the job here, I first interviewed at a not-to-
and agile lineman—somehow managed
motto from Psalm 111, “The fear of the Lord is
be-named military school in the morning—an
to intercept a screen pass. Was it against
the beginning of Wisdom.” But I quickly came
atmosphere of asphalt and brick, a tense
Woodberry? I think so. And just yesterday I
to embrace it—at least as I interpret it. Fear
place full of suspicious eyes and straight
thought of a couple of moments that bring
here means respect—and we can also see the
backs and crisp, perhaps sardonic, salutes.
football and English, athletics and language
lowercase lord below the uppercase Lord.
It was April. Here, the dogwoods were
together. My first year here at a tense
Or, as we said at STC back then, the Master
blooming. And I loved the way students and
moment near the end of a football game at
(all teachers were masters—and there were
teachers talked to one another, the affection
Norfolk Academy a StC guy yelled out to
senior masters and even a headmaster). So:
and respect I heard in their joking when they
our quarterback, “Keep abreast of the time!”
The respect of properly instituted authority
passed one another on the sidewalks.
And some years later, the excellent English student and tough linebacker Jack Martin,
is the beginning of wisdom? OK, I, said, I can It was right here in this chapel that a
standing next to me on the sideline, yelled,
speaker (and I’m embarrassed to say I don’t
“Get HEEneeus!” I said to him, “Jack, that
About eighty-five years ago, I was sitting
remember for sure which speaker, though I
word is pronounced HAYnus.” And Jack said,
Sotos, Sotos, Sotos, Collier, Collier,
there on the back bench with other faculty
think it was Chaplain Bill Martin) pointed out
“I know. But heeneus sounds meaner.” I think
listening to, watching a student reading the
to me—to all of us present that day—that
he’s right.
lesson. This particular student looked up
when they read the Book of Genesis, most
from the page and smiled every few seconds.
people said, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’
Anecdotes, war stories . . . There are hundreds
And many of us adults were getting more
of digressive episodes I could tell you about. But
Andrews, Andrews, Thornhill,
and there was light.” He went on to point
and more furious. Why? He was only reading
out that that must be wrong, because if you
some episodes seem to me to lie at the heart of
and smiling. No: he was mocking. He was
say, “and there was light” you seem to be
the narrative’s central themes and values.
buy that. But it’s only the beginning. . . .
(continued)
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CHAPEL TALK
When I came here for that job interview in
that we were doing something important,
Sometimes,
We think of books as composed by solitary
April of 1972, Bob Herzog, Athletic Director,
that we were teaching young men how
in the roil and confusion
writers. But the King James Bible was
warned me over and over not to expect
to think, how to read closely and write
of grunts and thuds, his side, the left,
produced by a committee—and it’s a great
to coach any college football prospects.
precisely—really, that we were teaching them
The Slaughterhouse, would begin
book, I’d say a great poem. The collaborative
“You will not send any football players off
through words how to be human beings,
to cough up turf. Buzzard Blitz,
narrative that is StC is a healthy place
to play in college,” he said. “I know,” I said,
to be compassionate and honorable, to be
Ugly Surprise, Noseguard To,
today—physically, emotionally, spiritually. The
“I’m coming here to teach English not coach
perceptive and logical. How to work hard and
nothing worked. That’s when Mason went in,
arts are a part of that health; the arts really
football.” “No, no,” he said, “Don’t think you’re
enjoy working hard, to think more about their
matter at this school today. The verbal arts:
going to have good football teams here.” He
waddling past hunch-shouldered,
characters than about their personalities.
didn’t believe me. He said it over and over. I
bleeding, limping, sweat-glazed Monk,
we have a Writer-in-Residence, thanks to
How to compete in a healthy way, when to
said I thought the school had its priorities
George McVey; we have the brilliant jazzman
compete and when to cooperate.
apologizing as he came, sometimes crying.
John Winn and the gifted theater director
perfectly right: Academics and the Honor Code first, everything else second.
Here’s a poem set in that more violent, more brutal time when I played and coached
My first day of teaching seventh grade
football—a poem about these things we all
composition and grammar, I assigned
have to learn, players and coaches, students
Chapter 1 of the textbook for homework—and
and teachers. The characters here are
that night my wife Delores asked me why I was staying up so late. I told her that the text declared that there were X number of
defensive tackles. (The names are made up.) Monk & Mason
Rusty Wilson thanks to Charley Stillwell. We
we’d watch Mason’s ducking dodge
old tradition of fine music continues, thanks
throw off the blocker’s rhythm.
to Greg Vick, Leslie Long, Nick Brata, and so
It took me years to learn
many other remarkable people.
She has to go. And have to go she did. In deep December we exposed the roots
Monk, taut, thin as a cord, was my kind
never did, belted at home
so often with Jim Boyd and Cliff Dickinson
do the same thing and ask me about it.
of lineman that first year
stiff in the air, hanging
and the other English teachers? With
“They’re seventh graders,” she said, “they’re
I coached, slashing, all out
tough three inches
librarian Mary Horne and journalism teacher
not going to think of that.” You’re right I said
at all times. When I called him to me,
from earth’s ease, relief
Kathleen Thomas? And every day when my
and went to bed.
the caged face came in a satisfying
the rest of us, no matter how mean,
students and I gather in Room 215 we give it
net of blood from the layered scar
took and took.
everything we’ve got—OK, at least I do. And
he and I discussed the differences between descriptive and prescriptive grammar. This same young man, in my class the very next year—eighth grade survey of American Literature—dutifully read Moby-Dick for extra credit as soon as I urged the class to do so. After I gave a lecture on the novel (yes, a lecture and a lecture probably better suited to graduate students than to middle schoolers), this young man came up to me at the end of class and said, “You know, Mr. Smith, I read Moby-Dick, but now that I’ve heard you talk about it, I think I need to read it again.” All my students in those days were not quite as brilliant and polite and humble and curious
a good percentage of them do, too.
that gritted the nose to the eyes. Those eyes: wild and watery and black,
begging to please, to hurt.
the other guys’ looming hulk
Out there beyond us,
lunged at the ax blow that no longer fell, Mason
missed the flicker of Mason, who held out
weighed ten pounds more, a paltry
his hands as if to cast a spell,
one seventy-five, but drove me
about as solid as a dust web to one
up the wall in practice, too soft, yielding, full of yessir but executing always a kind of padded shrug. Monk did what I told him, punished the double team in a whack and crackle of plastic and bone. Mason, damn him, muffled the blow, skated into our baffled backers--or, true, rode the offensive wave to drag down somehow a short gain, broke all the rules
who’d finally steeled himself to hit back hard and now had to learn to keep his head out of the dirt long enough to shadow this ghost of a lineman, this parody who’d found a new way to take all the fun out of the game. When they finally got Mason’s number, I told Monk--fresh, whining to go-to get back in there and do some damage.
and managed still to avoid
His eyes always told me
being blown away.
he would.
when we read, when we write, when we try to solve a difficult problem—if we’re doing it correctly—then we’re using everything we’ve ever learned, everything we’ve ever experienced. StC makes it possible for students to do this—to strive with joy toward
And dragged it, creaking somewhat in protest (but on the whole accepting what old age and no fruit now for all these seasons must, with men about, have led it to expect) off to the creek and rolled it in the marsh. And he said, Good. Now the whole field was clear for planting and no more of ploughing ‘round. He put his tractor up and I went home. In spring, when the earth had dried enough to hold
real learning, significant achievement.
the rig again, he ploughed with satisfaction. I’ll finish with a poem by George Squires. When I first arrived at St. Christopher’s,
But his wife looked out of the kitchen window one day
George was a severe Father Figure, an intimidating mentor. By the time he died in 1988--the week of his retirement party--, he was my good friend, a man Delores and I
and asked, What is that patch of white down there? There isn’t any dogwood in the marsh.
adored.
It was the pear. Forgiving? Or defiant? In the past when I was asked if I would consider doing this chapel talk I said, “I’m not
Monk started
old enough!” Well, I stand before you today
of course, butted the big boys
somewhat younger than Dr. Chamberlayne, The Good Old Days had their virtues and
close. Rick is now my doctor, by the way, my
through the guard’s outside gap,
their glories—and their griefs.
GP. And my orthopedist is Mark Jones, who,
stunned the halfback to attention
when he was in my eleventh grade American
on the second step of a simple dive.
lit class, wrote a brilliant essay on The Scarlet
How could you not love him?
Letter.
He knew the Slant and Loop
There’s so much more I could tell you. About
“1911” appeared in the magazine Broad
like the back of his broken hand,
the black sheep of one of my classes who, on
Street. “Monk & Mason” appeared in
Teaching English—literature and writing—
took the proper angle on the sweep
the very last day of National Poetry Month,
“Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature.”
that’s why I came here. Thinking I’d be
and caught the runner cutting back
recited Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey—all 159
here a couple of years and then move on
blind with thirty yards of terrible
lines of it. Or, back to football, I could tell you
to something else. The work was hard, the
momentum. You almost wanted
how Wick the Lick Ware got his nickname.
hours were incredibly long—but I always felt
to look away.
But I must keep abreast of the time.
10 | StC
or leaving hedgerows for the rabbits) said,
We don’t just play school here. We know that
starry-eyed play after play, knifed
as Rick Gergoudis, but many were pretty
an argument about old fences yet,
what Mason wasn’t trying
was worried that one of my students would
doesn’t fit . . .” So, for the next fifty minutes
the place. He lived on it and hadn’t lost
teacher (Amanda Livick). And the decades-
colleagues. How lucky am I to be able to chat
Mr. Smith, but I thought of a sentence that
But the man who worked the land (I merely owned
a recently acquired photography and film
It’s important to like and admire your
man—new to StC as I was—said, “I read that,
When I saw it, I said that it should stay.
in the bend of my elbow. Side by side
tormented, and finally dead Monk
in English.” A hand went up. This young
that it should never know another spring.
I’d say, and wedge his hot neck
to teach anybody. Yearning,
says there are these sentence patterns
as if it knew what mortal plans we had
have art and photography exhibitions—and
of a sentence that didn’t seem to fit, and I
patterns on the board and said, “Your book
The pear tree bloomed in the false October warmth,
It’s OK,
sentence types in English but I had thought
The next day in class I wrote the sentence
The Pear Tree
but two years older than George Squires ever got to be on this Earth.
Or, what seems likelier, considering facts, simply something that nature couldn’t help before the salt tide finally did it in? Whichever way it was, I’m glad he saw it.
Here’s his poem “The Pear Tree.” by George Squires St. Christopher’s English teacher 1953-1988
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journeys to manhood As Headmaster Charley Stillwell wrote in the opening to this magazine, “Nothing we do here at St. Christopher’s is more important than helping boys on their journeys to being good men.” The Journeys to Manhood title for our fall programming at The Center for the Study of Boys reflects that core mission, established more than 100 years ago, to grow and develop boys into young men of character. This segment of our publication focuses on our new center and its role in promoting the best ways to engage, motivate and educate boys. In addition, we interviewed a handful of alumni across the decades to talk about how the school supported and influenced them in their journeys. We speak for our entire community of educators, parents and alums in saying that we are all in this together as we seek to raise a healthy, resilient generation of young men.
Self portraits from Saunders Ruffin ’14 show his progression from boy to young man. Saunders, a sophomore at Pennsylvania State University, is an international politics major who is passionate about climate change.
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13 Kindergarten
Middle School
Upper School
College
Michael kimmel
RENOVATION UPDATE:
The Center for the
explores complex issues of masculinity
Study of Boys In describing the newly renovated space for The Center for the Study of Boys, one student said it felt like going home.
At an April talk that kicked off the opening of the Center for the Study of Boys, Michael Kimmel explored issues of masculinity.
While he may have been alluding to hardwood floors and comfortable chairs, center Director Kim Hudson took it one step further: “I think he was saying, ‘I can just be me,’ and that’s exactly what we want. The center is a place that is open and welcoming. It’s a place where student voices are heard, and we can reflect on their experiences and insights to make St. Christopher’s an even better school for boys. I think the space really reflects what we wanted it to be which is comfortable and boy friendly and supportive.”
The author of “Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men” offered inspiration and perspective from years of research and study on such topics as a new stage of development prior to adulthood and problems with binge drinking, initiation rituals and sexual assaults on campus. Kimmel warned against parental overinvolvement, what he says is creating a less resilient and more risk-averse generation, kids who have become “adept at pleasing grownups but they don’t know who they are inside to take responsibility for their own actions.” Kimmel talks to university presidents all the time who receive phone calls from parents about grades, one example of infantilizing young adults. “Never having to clean up their own messes, stand up or take responsibility for themselves isn’t good parenting,” he said.
The center, located in the basement of Chamberlayne Hall, aims to promote the best ways to engage, motivate and educate boys. It’s going full force this year with a threefold focus: programming, research and professional development. “We want to make sure we know and love each boy,” Dr. Hudson said. “The best teachers know instinctively how to capture the attention of boys. Our goal is to move from the intuitive to the intentional with every teacher in figuring out what we can we do to make sure we’re reaching our boys most effectively.” The center kicked off last fall when Michael Kimmel spoke to the community about his book, “Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men.” Dr. Hudson, a 10-year StC faculty member who received her doctorate in education from the University of Virginia, now devotes much of her time to building the program. The renovation for the center was completed just in time for the beginning of the school year. Chamberlayne Hall was chosen because of its central location between the Lower School and Middle School. Exterior access to a newly built patio helps make the space more public and inviting.
“ What gets me excited about this work is that the things we’re doing will help our boys have a better experience, whether it’s in the classroom, on the field, or in their relationships with their parents. When what we’re doing helps boys in some way, that’s a win.”
As a result, many young men coming out of high school are eager, sometimes even desperate, to prove their masculinity in situations such as parties and fraternity initiations where no adults are present. Simultaneously, the age of adulthood is now considered to be about 26, creating a new stage of development after adolescence, a time of questioning, turmoil and uncertainty. Additional challenges include frequently changing fields of employment and changing relationships with women who are equally committed to their careers. Millennials are characterized as bouncing from job to job with lofty ambitions but no clue as to how to build a career. Human resource professionals often associate this age group with a three-month itch. “After three months they realize they’re not going to be CFO any time soon so they move on to another entry level job,” Kimmel said.
Meanwhile the cultural ideology of masculinity remains much the same. Cultural tradition calls for men to be tough, competitive, stoic and steady. Male gender issues need more attention and exploration, Kimmel said. He is encouraged by initiatives that explore what ethical manhood looks like, where integrity, honor, responsibilities and standing up for the little guy is admired. A boys school has the capability to start conversations about being a good man vs. a real man, he said, with the ultimate goal of having boys hold themselves and their friends accountable for their own ethical standards.
“ Never having to clean up their own messes, stand up or take responsibility for themselves isn’t good parenting.” — MICHAEL KIMMEL AUTHOR, “GUYLAND: THE PERILOUS WORLD WHERE BOYS BECOME MEN”
—DR. KIM HUDSON, DIRECTOR THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF BOYS
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“Every man has to self define.”
— Joe Ehrmann, former NFL player and author
The center’s threefold FOCUS PROGRAMMING
research
In the fall, a series of events entitled “Journeys to Manhood” included a community talk with nationally-known Joe Ehrmann, a former NFL football player, educator, author, coach, speaker and minister, in addition to free screenings of the movie, “The Mask We Live In,” featuring Ehrmann and other boy experts.
Dr. Dorothy Suskind, a fifth grade teacher, is leading the school’s newly formed Saints Action Research Team.
Students are a critical part of event planning. According to participant Gunther Abbot ’17, the student advisory committee gives feedback on events, helps plan logistics and leads discussions among students.
PROfessional development Dr. Michael Reichert, a psychologist whose global studies on educating boys education led to the publication of two books, held relationship seminars with teachers in all divisions last year. This year the faculty continues to collaborate on ways to forge positive relationships with students.
This fall faculty screened the film, “The Mask You Live In,” heard from Joe Ehrmann and continue to be part of divisional teams focusing on how to incorporate these messages into their daily work with boys.
Ongoing projects include the following: Lower School teacher Richard Morton is integrating math into physical education; Lower School Resource teacher Laura Ambrogi is working on student engagement and creative response in reading; third grade teacher Sarah Hubard is using engineering and design to motivate young writers; Middle School teacher Alex Knight is providing students with choices in writing selection to increase motivation; soccer coach Jay Wood is employing self-evaluation for soccer players; Upper School history teacher Stuart Ferguson is helping boys communicate more effectively with teachers when they need help; and Lower School/Middle School Choir Director Nick Brata is experimenting with multiple strategies to teach choral music. “All the teachers are researching a practice in their classroom, studio or athletic field that speaks specifically to the boys they teach and coach,” Dr. Suskind said. “As teacher researchers, we listen carefully to what our boys have to say and then craft strategies and instruction to support their voices, foster relationships and develop their skills. We carefully evaluate the results.” In addition, St. Christopher’s is exploring relational teaching with Lower School boys. The results will be presented to teachers from around the globe at the International Boys School Coalition conference in Vancouver, Canada in June 2016.
Joe Ehrmann
discusses the journey to manhood by Alyx McKinnon ’16 Picture in your mind the ideal man. The true man’s man. What does he look like? Is he successful? How so? Do you see the quarterback of the football team or the head of the chess club? Is there a woman on his arm? What is she like? Is she a scholar or a model? How do other men see him? Is he respected? Admired? Feared?
Ehrmann argued that each of the definitions of masculinity that society presents to us is incorrect. A pastoral minister for more than 30 years, he says that at death, people measure their lives solely on two standards: their relationships and their impact on others. This is Ehrmann’s criteria for manhood, womanhood and humanity.
Joe Ehrmann, former NFL player and author of “Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood,” said these questions feed into the three major cultural lies that men are taught about masculinity. One, that a man is judged on his athletic ability. Two, that his manhood is dependent on using women for sex. And three, that a man’s economic success measures his worth.
Ehrmann spoke as a part of The Center for the Study of Boys’ Journey to Manhood speaker series: to parents on the night of Oct. 21 and to students the morning afterwards, following a showing of “The Mask You Live In,” a film in which experts detail toxic masculinity standards often forced on boys.
These ideals are etched into our mind through cultural conditioning and our nurturing by parents and adults. Ehrmann used the metaphor of a keyboard, linked directly to our brains, on which society types in messages telling us how we should see ourselves and others. “The challenge for each and every one of us is to control these keyboards,” Ehrmann said. “Every man has to self define.”
That St. Christopher’s is having these conversations is already a step in the right direction. Teachers remarked that the idea of the school hosting these kinds of conversations 10 or 20 years ago would be astonishing. Ehrmann said, “What they’re doing here is a sign of hope.” Alyx McKinnon is editor-in-chief of The Pine Needle, the Upper School newspaper.
The “inner critic” within our minds that criticizes our actions, then, must be defeated. Ehrmann says, “You’d never allow anyone to talk to you the way you talk to yourself.”
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alumni journeys
Here at St. Christopher’s we strive to help boys along in their journeys to be good men. We take on roles of teacher, coach, advisor, mentor, ally, disciplinarian, listener and encourager knowing it is a privilege to walk with students as they matriculate through. Every alumni has stories of what St. Christopher’s meant to him during critical times of development. We share a few here.
Robert Barry ’08 Two incidents the spring of Robert Barry’s senior year yielded new understanding that all actions have consequences. The infractions meant his college of choice, Denison University, had to be notified, and he was put on extended rock pile duty, the dreaded punishment involving sweat and sore muscles where boys haul rocks from one location to another. The 2008 class president also had to miss senior year minimester, but is grateful to have had those learning experiences then, not later. “St. Christopher’s prepares you and makes you understand that wrong actions have consequences,” said the former Denison two-time national champion swimmer. “At the time, I was like, ‘all this is stupid.’ Now I look back and realize the faculty support is there. There are teachers you get along with and some you don’t, but there are always some who just want to talk and understand what’s going on, who want to get the story.”
Stephan Said ’86
Mike Krupin ’65
Musician and activist Stephan Said ‘86, known at St. Christopher’s as Steven Gutowski, expressed his appreciation for St. Christopher’s in a chapel talk last spring. He said returning for the first time since graduation provoked a flood of memories he could never express in the few minutes he had to speak in chapel. “I’m really happy, honored to be here, to be home, to be in this room for the first time in a long time.”
Mike Krupin ’65 grew up with six people living in his grandparents’ twobedroom house in Salem, Va. He never read a book, but was a good athlete who was named All-Western District linebacker. He could not accept a scholarship to play ball for Hampden-Sydney College with SAT scores below the minimum requirement.
With his parents’ divorce during his sophomore year, his Upper School years were turbulent and St. Christopher’s provided refuge. The Iraqi-American with a diverse heritage combining Christianity, Islam and Judaism recalled some game-changing moments such as when he found inspiration in the movie “Ghandi” and when a compound leg fracture forced him to give up lacrosse. Laid up in bed for weeks, he started playing music up to 12 hours a day. He ultimately healed, formed a rock band and started on a path toward social change with inspiration from writers studied in his English classes, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg.
Mike hitchhiked home and told his mom he was going to attend St. Christopher’s where he would live in an infirmary with eight beds, options that sounded much better than his rollaway single. He was also excited about the hot showers (vs. boiling water for baths on stoves that heated his grandparents’ house) and three meals a day. He played football, baseball and wrestled and never looked back. He gives St. Christopher’s credit for changing his life and describes his classmates as his dearest friends.
Today Stephan makes a living traveling the world, particularly hot-spot conflict zones, and writing songs for social change and peace. “The inspiration for me started right here,” he said. “My most formative years I spent in these buildings working through my confusion about who I was, what school I was going to go to, did I fit in or not fit in, all that coming of age and becoming who I wanted to be and still want to be today.”
Jack Parr ’54
Stephan, who Billboard Magazine dubbed “this generation’s Woody Guthrie,” seeks to inspire courage and urges all of us to use our voices for change. “Great leaders don’t divide but unite people.”
But then STC Varsity Basketball Coach Petey Jacobs saw potential and gave Jack keys to the gym so he could practice during off hours. The reserved but hard-working teenager put in a lot of practice. His discipline and work ethic paid off.
Robert is now a capital markets analyst for Capital One in New York City.
Shelton Horsley ’45
George McVey was a few years behind Jack Parr ’54, whom he remembers as a gangly transfer from Thomas Jefferson High School who was so awkward that boys didn’t even pick him for their team in gym class.
The 6’9” three-time All-Big Eight selection and two-time All American, who died last year, led Kansas State University to the 1958 Final Four and helped the team secure Big Seven Conference titles in 1956 and 1958. He was drafted by the NBA and played one season for the Cincinnati Royals.
Only a few months after Dr. Shelton Horsley III ’45 transfered to St. Christopher’s, his father died in a tragic automobile accident. Shelton remembers being called out of class that eighth grade year to meet in Mr. Bugg’s office where he received the news Nov. 22, 1940.
In the 50th anniversary edition of his St. Christopher’s class annual, Jack wrote, “My parents provided many opportunities for me -- their gift was to ‘insist’ a very introverted young man enroll at St. Christopher’s. The St. Christopher’s experience was truly life changing. I am even now deeply grateful.”
His mother then raised three children solo, Shelton being the oldest. “We relied on St. Christopher’s for a lot of good support,” he said. “There was always someone there I could talk to if necessary… The faculty and coaches at St. Christopher’s were great men and great role models.”
Jack gave back too. He sent round-trip plane tickets for Coach Jacobs and his wife to watch him play, and he is remembered for his generosity and care for others, particularly those in need of food, shelter and better education. He is survived by his wife Ann, five children and 13 grandchildren.
The now retired surgeon attributes much of the home stability to the strength and steadiness of his mother. His son Shelton IV graduated from St. Christopher’s, and two grandsons Jack and Will are in ninth and eighth grades respectively.
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His high school coach called St. Christopher’s to ask if Mike could do a year there to bump up his scores. Mike bought a sports coat, pants and a clip-on tie and hitch-hiked to the capital city for an interview. Upon his arrival, Headmaster Warren Elmer along with teachers Rives Hardy and Bob Herzog asked him to write an essay. They granted acceptance saying that his essay was one of the worst they’d ever read, that he didn’t have a prayer of college acceptance without better instruction and some work.
Mike left insurance carrier Provident Mutual (now Nationwide Insurance), where he was a top producer, to form Krupin Associates in Richmond in 1980. He and his son Bryan moved to Beverly Hills in 1996 to form GilbertKrupin. In 2012, they, along with Mike’s daughter Ashley, formed Krupin Partners that serves clients throughout the country from Beverly Hills, Richmond and New York offices.
ALUMNI IN SERVICE Service is a huge component of our mission at St. Christopher’s. Nowhere is it more evident than in the lives of those who serve in the U.S. military to promote peace and protect our freedoms. Here’s a peek into the lives of some of our alums who are currently active as they reflect on their careers, how St. Christopher’s prepared them and advice they would give students.
Col. Erik Imajo ’84
Col. Erik Peterson ’85 In his first assignment in Germany, Imajo was platoon leader of 60 soldiers who deployed to Kuwait. Subsequent assignments included battalion and brigade staff at Fort Riley and basic training company command at Fort Jackson. After leaving active duty, he transitioned to the Army Reserve. His first civilian job was production team leader for The Little Tikes Co., a Hudson, Ohio-based plastic toy manufacturer. The culture shock was more than he had expected, and it was only a year before he resigned his position to accept a tour with his reserve unit as the battalion logistics officer. He applied for a full-time staff position that opened in his unit, and became a Department of the Army civilian. Erik remained in Ohio another four years before returning to Richmond in 2004. He now works at Fort Lee for the agency that administers contracts for the Department of Defense.
Col. Erik Imajo ’84 views his role as a leader as creating conditions for others to succeed. “I really try to focus on the individual and what motivates them,” he says. “I prefer to be in the background pushing people, providing the encouragement. What increases performance for one person will cause another to shut down.” While many leaders, particularly in the military, take a more aggressive, authoritative approach, his priorities are authenticity and giving others credit. “The people you work with will know instantly whether you’re a fake,” he says. “You have to be true to your own personality, your own character.” Erik graduated from Georgetown University on an Army ROTC scholarship and served on active duty in the artillery for nine years. Training at Fort Sill taught him navigation and basic soldiering skills as well as the basic tenets of leadership. He found the Army values remarkably similar to those at St. Christopher’s where the Honor Code undergirds all aspects of school life. “What you hear about all the time [in the military] is integrity, something we lived at St. Christopher’s,” he says. “It wasn’t a new concept. That was the primary thing that helped me fit in. Certain behaviors had been expected of me already.”
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Erik knows that the expectations and discipline of military life are not for everyone, but he is grateful for the opportunities an Army career afforded. “If you like it, you love it. There’s no substitute. It’s always been a safety net for me. The military family is very strong and will always be there to support you.”
“ The people you work with will know instantly whether you’re a fake. You have to be true to your own personality, your own character.”
While Col. Erik Peterson ’85 was deployed to Iraq in 2006, a picture from a unit likely near his own location began to circulate the internet. The picture simply showed words a Marine had scrawled on a dry erase board: “America is not at war. The Marine Corps is at war. America is at the mall.” It struck a cord. It is reality when fewer than half of one percent of the population serves. Erik believes everyone should have an overseas experience to gain perspective on America’s abundance. He’s not advocating mandatory service, but sees the military as an option as is working for a nonprofit such as the Peace Corps. “We have clean water on tap that we can drink and lights that work 24/7,” he says. “Much of the world isn’t like that. Most Americans have no clue. Going to another part of the world and seeing how little those places have and how horribly some people are treated by others will give you that perspective.” After accepting a Navy ROTC scholarship at Duke University, Erik opted for the Marine Corps. He trained as an artillery officer intending to complete the required four-year active duty obligation, see the world and return to civilian life. The latter never came to fruition. His 26-year military career spans 11 years of active duty and 15 years in the Reserves, with tours in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm), Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom) and a non-combat tour assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. One highlight was commanding an artillery firing battery as a captain at Camp Lejeune. In Desert Storm, he was assigned as an artillery forward observer with a Marine tank company, where he served on the company commander’s main battle tank, identifying enemy targets
and calling for artillery fire. As part of an 11-Marine team in Iraq he was embedded with an Iraqi infantry battalion and advised them how to fight and accompanied the Iraqis on both mounted and dismounted patrols in Habbaniyah and Ramadi. Erik admits he might have done a few things differently. While eager for selection as an artillery officer, he realizes in retrospect that supporting positions in areas such as logistics or communications might have better positioned him for life after active duty. “I should have had a more long-term view as far as my personal plan but I went tour to tour,” he says. “Still I would absolutely do it all over again. I don’t regret a single moment or deployment.” He wonders if the necessary sense of sacrifice even exists anymore for many of his fellow citizens. “People respect the military but few people even know someone who serves, let alone answer the call to serve in today’s all-volunteer force,” he says. In addition, approximately 70 percent of the recruiting pool populace is not physically qualified. For the Marines, recruits must meet height and weight standards and be able to do three pull ups, 50 sit ups and run three miles in 28 minutes or less. Erik is grateful for lifelong friendships forged. “That sense of camaraderie is hard to find in the civilian world. It is especially strong for Marines, a service that is a smaller and more tightly knit than our sister services, a true brotherhood and sisterhood.” Leadership, he says, comes in many forms and personalities. While the directed type A personality can be effective, some of the best officers Peterson has known were quiet and thoughtful and rarely raised their voices. Erik is currently assigned to the Pentagon as a liaison to the Department of Veterans Affairs. When his orders are complete in September 2016, he will decide whether to stay in for one last reserve assignment or hang up his uniform for good. “Twenty-seven years of service is a good start, but it would be a shame to not stay on through 30,” he says. “Besides, the way the world is today, the corps and the nation might need me one more time.”
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Alumni in Service Lt. Col. Grahame Trevillian ’87 Shooting down a satellite carrying hazardous propellant was a major feat for Grahame Trevillian ’87 and a large cast of players. The then-classified fiveweek project, called Operation Burnt Frost, required long hours and a working knowledge in physics, mathematics, orbital mechanics, space law and characterizing toxic fumes to weather conditions. The project called for interfacing with 32 organizations to create or mesh existing technology to take down a 5,000-pound spacecraft cruising at over 17,000 miles an hour. It was quite literally rocket science. “You have to be prepared to be stretched,” Grahame says of the experience. “You have to take diverse skill sets and tie them together.” Grahame’s Air Force career has been filled with highs such as this. The first shot fired destroyed the satellite before its 1,000 pounds of hazardous fuel compounds hit earth. Conversely, his experience has met with lows such as serving with the U.S. Africa Command when the Libyan crisis broke loose in spring 2011 and terrorists struck Benghazi’s American Embassy in 2012. “You need to be flexible,” the Lt. Colonel says about military life. “Change will be your only constant. You have no idea what the next day is going to throw at you.”
Grahame found inspiration to serve while attending East Carolina University where he got involved with ROTC. “I did it on a whim to see if I would enjoy that and found out that’s what I wanted to do.” He says St. Christopher’s prepared him well, and finds parallels between the STC Honor Code and the Air Force core values of integrity first, service before self and pursuit of excellence. The military experience can be isolating, he admits, when friends and family often can’t relate. “What people see on the news, what they see on TV or movies is not even close to the level of professionalism, knowledge or commitment of the military professionals you will work with,” he says. “Family members do not even know how to talk to me about it. Their eyes glaze over because they don’t understand. They’re not around it. It’s a different culture.”
From graduating Honorman of his first boot camp platoon to landing helicopters on Buckingham Palace’s backyard as part of the Presidential Helicopter Squadron, Buck found a calling that became a life passion. His deployments have toured the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Somalia, Cuba and Japan. He’s been to mountain warfare school; he’s taught water survival and amphibious combat techniques along with Marine aviation. He left active duty to join the Reserves and work as a civil engineering products salesmen but reupped after two years and became an officer and pilot where he flew combat helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last fall he completed refresher training for a new gunship and reported to his squadron in North Carolina in December. Buck is grateful for his time at St. Christopher’s that instilled a love for competition and physical training while teaching teamwork and
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His advice for any potential recruit is the necessity for a deep-seated desire to serve, that any half-hearted or noncommittal attitude results in a horrible experience. “The inverse is also true,” he says. “Those that embrace the life, and it is a good one, give it their best, can expect rewards that most will never know.” Buck regrets that enlisting is so rarely on the radar of private school graduates, young people he describes as having superior leadership, athletic and academic skills. “A single four-year stint after college is no great loss of time,” he says. “My peers in the military who did a single enlistment found their experience, maturity, leadership and worldly skills placed them at the top of acceptance rosters at the finest graduate schools this country has to offer. It is a path so foreign to Prep-League students that most have no idea of the benefits.”
Major Sessoms’ Advice For Students • Be a good follower first. • Do exactly what makes you happy and you will excel. Follow your own path and do your best. Choose a career that you would do for free. • Be a quiet professional. Deeds not words. • Be a lifelong student of your chosen field. Read everything and anything related to it. Professionalism and knowledge are often synonymous. • Never quit. If you want it, embrace the pain.
While some bemoan the constant moving that military life requires, Grahame views it as a positive, providing opportunities for selfassessment and change, a “free do-over to reinvent something.” He advises students to stay connected with friends and associates, but to value family first. “It’s almost like a cliché but when you leave the military, the awards and rank you’ve gotten make no difference,” he says. “You can put some things up on the wall but they just collect dust. Family is the only enduring legacy.”
Major Oscar Sessoms ’87 After graduating from VMI, Oscar “Buck” Sessoms ’87 floundered a bit before deciding to join. “Once there, I knew this is exactly what I was meant to do,” the Major says. “I loved it, and the Marines loved me back.”
“Leadership is communication, pure and simple. My foundation in that regard was so far above my peers, it was obvious to any instructor or leader I had from high school on.”
leadership. He believes the outdoor survival, basic camping and fieldcraft skills introduced in the StC Waterman program positioned him well, as did his English classes. “Although mathematics and sciences were important, the writing and rhetoric skills learned as a student of literature were absolutely the most important,” he says.
Col. Francis Park ’90 Decades after graduation, Col. Francis Park ’90 still credits a broad-based liberal arts education and deeprooted ethical training at St. Christopher’s School for laying the foundation for a rewarding career. Francis regularly draws on that education in his military life. Examples include harkening back to French classes with Joe Knox to communicate with Belgian paratroopers and using calculus instruction gleaned from Jim Boyd and Robert Johns to explain the nuances of campaign analysis in Afghanistan. His fellow planners were taken aback by the calculus analogy, but appreciated its relevance. “The utility of a broad education is not to train a student about the certainty they might face,” Francis says. “Its utility is in preparing for uncertainty that training and experience alone won’t address.” He adds that STC religion and philosophy classes, as well as the school Honor Code, became the foundation for the moral compass that has guided his career. He first seriously considered the military after attending the University of Virginia’s Summer Enrichment Program, where a counselor who was a ROTC midshipman encouraged him to apply. Before his senior year at StC he participated in programs at West Point and Annapolis and eventually accepted an Army ROTC scholarship at Johns Hopkins University where he majored in history.
After almost a decade in armor and cavalry assignments at Fort Hood, Texas and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Francis switched gears. In 2004, he became a strategic plans and policy officer and attended the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. During a six-month tour to Iraq in 2006, he developed an infrastructure security plan for the oil pipelines and electrical grid in north central Iraq. A 14-month stint in Afghanistan as the lead campaign planner for the 101st Airborne Division from 2008 to 2009 included co-writing the initial expansion plan for forces in Afghanistan, which set the stage for what eventually became the Afghan Surge. During a second 12-month deployment to Afghanistan in 2014, he had a ringside seat to national and coalition decisions as a policy and strategy advisor to the four-star commander of all coalition and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Other career highlights include receiving his Ph.D. in military history from the University of Kansas in 2012 and writing the U.S. Army’s institutional strategy in 2013. Francis has particularly used skills honed from three trimesters with English teacher Ron Smith during his senior year at St. Christopher’s. Writing has been a large part of his life calling, but particularly in his current duties as one of the historians charged with writing the U.S. Army’s official history of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Buying into the military as a way to pay for college ended up reaping benefits he never dreamed possible. “It was a chance to work with people from all walks of life from all over the world,” Francis says. “Most importantly, it was a chance to make a difference in the things I got to work on.”
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Alumni in Service Captain Cabell Doyle ’99 Who might have guessed that a 30-minute flying lesson Christmas gift from his father would instill a passion that would become his life calling?
The most challenging part of that job involved the deconfliction of airspace that requires monitoring and communicating with a half dozen air and ground controllers. “It’s a very work intensive zone when you’re also in the middle of an active war zone,” Cabell says. “It takes a lot of concentration and belief in coworkers that they are being professional and doing what they have to do.”
This was the case for Cabell Doyle ’99 who graduated from Furman University and worked a short stint at Capital One before answering a call to join the Air Force.
The captain, who will soon become major, rates the camaraderie as on par or above what St. Christopher’s students experience in athletics or in clubs. “It opened up a great opportunity for me to travel the world and experience the best flying and technology that was available.” Still he, like other alums interviewed, bemoans common perceptions of the military as “a lesser path.”
Cabell was commissioned through Officer Training School, completed pilot training at Columbus Air Force base and is now based out of McGuire Air Force base in New Jersey. From 2007 through 2011, he flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan 300 days a year. At the outset, he pinned every location visited on a map in his home. After placing hundreds of pins, he stopped. “Those were tough years,” Cabell says about leaving his wife Frances, a St. Catherine’s English teacher, and children at home for long stretches.
“People will be in awe and say thank you but never put themselves or people they love in that position,” he says. “They will support it in words but they wouldn’t live it.” Now Cabell flies commercial planes for American Airlines and is on Reserve duty where he works two days a month for the Air Force. “That’s the fun flying,” he says. “We do a lot of war missions, fly some heads of state and do some humanitarian relief.”
The 13-year St. Christopher’s student who figured he’d go to the University of Virginia and work on Wall Street had no clue that in his early 20s he’d be driving a $1.5 billion warship and running a nuclear reactor. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, Matt graduated from Nuclear Power School in Charleston and prototype training in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. After his sea tour, he completed a shore tour as a nuclear engineering instructor before a transfer into the Engineering Duty Officer community, a small
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Tim Rose ’05 has been serving with the Marine Rotational Force Darwin in the Australian back country since March.
as company executive officer where he focused on building and executing training plans, designing live firing ranges, mentoring Marines and managing an armory with more than $2 million in weapons and equipment.
The newly promoted Captain says he’s motivated by the focus on leadership, a big component of his time at St. Christopher’s. “I feel really good about what I’m doing,” he says. “I’m very close to my marines. I enjoy training, challenging and impacting them on a daily basis.”
Tim plans to stick with the Marine Corps for the foreseeable future. He’s motivated to work for a cause whose ultimate goal is peace, but doesn’t sugarcoat the experience saying the typical Hollywood depiction — Navy SEAL and special force heroics — is one small part. “It’s a big bureaucratic organization,” he says. “You need to have a little bit of patience and a lot of people skills. Sometimes it can feel like you’re waiting in line at the DMV.”
After graduating from Amherst College, Tim worked in politics, coached wrestling at StC and did an internship with Davenport & Co. Through all these experiences, he contemplated joining the Marines, a seed planted his freshmen year at StC when he watched the World Trade Center fall during first period English class. “It was a calling,” he said. “There are people who saw that and cried. Others said, ‘I’ll grab a gun and hold the line.’ I wanted to be in that second category.”
StC graduates are ideal candidates for the military, Tim says. He is grateful that high school athletics prepared him physically while the academic program taught him how to think, reason and write. He’s sought after by colleagues for his writing and analytic skills. One of his favorite downtime activities is writing, specifically screenplays,
After officer training school, he joined a California-based infantry battalion and was deployed as a rifle platoon commander on a Navy amphibious assault ship, the USS Boxer, which traveled the world, primarily in the Persian Gulf. From there he joined Alpha Company
novels and blogging at his site armavirum.com. He’s currently on a Revolutionary War reading kick to learn how Colonial leaders made decisions while wrestling with their own doubts and insecurities. “Right now I’m focused on learning how to be the best, most productive leader I can be,” Tim says. “It’s my primary intellectual pursuit.”
Sam O’Ferrall ’13
Lt. Matt Washko ’02 Lt. Matt Washko ’02 spent 300 days a year at sea for almost four years on a submarine that supported the global war on terror. Travels included the North Pole, Europe, Africa and the Mediterranean. “It’s a lot like locking yourself in your bathroom for months at a time,” he says with the temperature constant at 68 degrees and fluorescent lights keeping the dark at bay.
Captain Tim Rose ’05
cadre of officers who lead the civilian-military complex that runs the research, development, procurement and maintenance of the navy’s conventional and strategic weapons systems. He is currently stationed at Norfolk Naval Shipyard where he oversees a $1.2 billion budget in maintenance and overhaul projects, including the refueling and overhaul of the USS Maryland, a ballistic missile submarine. Matt will be promoted to Lt. Commander this summer. He and his wife Amanda will move to Monterey, Calif. in May where he will pursue a master’s in systems engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School before heading to Washington, D.C. to work on the next generation ballistic missile submarine and its nuclear weapons. Matt has stayed involved with assisting students applying to the Naval Academy as a local admissions representative known as a Blue and Gold Officer. He believes in the mission of the Naval Academy and knows that the emphasis on leadership and service at St. Christopher’s is the perfect foundation for military service. “Work hard and doors will open to you that you never expected,” he says. “The amount of leadership and responsibility you get leading sailors, driving a warship and running a nuclear reactor at such a young age, you simply can’t get anywhere else.”
This fall Sam O’Ferrall ’13, a U.S. Military Academy junior, affirmed his commitment to serve in the U.S. Army for five years active duty and three years in the Reserves. Post graduation he hopes to attend Ranger School and then become an infantry officer overseeing a platoon of 40, most of whom will have been to combat; some twice his age. Part of his leadership plan is to listen well, particularly to senior members. He attributes part of his readiness to his 13 years here. “St. Christopher’s gave me a leg up on my classmates here as far as building character and morals needed to lead,” he says. The wording of the honor codes of STC and USMA are almost identical. The leadership programs at both schools share common goals in character building, personal fitness and public speaking. For Sam, the physical toughness to survive basic training wasn’t a problem but reorienting to put the organization before self was sometimes challenging. “I don’t care about personal goals any more,” he says. “It’s whatever makes the unit, the entire organization better. Instead of trying to pick ourselves up as high as we can, we want to pick everyone else up as high as we can.”
What he misses most about StC are the intimate relationships with teachers and coaches. The biggest challenge was getting used to West Point’s rules and limited time to see family. He was able to take emergency leave this summer to attend the funeral of an StC friend. “It opened my eyes that depression and suicide can touch everyone,” O’Ferrall says. “That’s where you have a crucible in your life. It is your duty and your responsibility to make sure this person is okay. You must have that personal courage to go out and talk to the person to see if they’re doing all right.” He encourages any students interested in applying to West Point to go for it. He is constantly inspired and motivated by his colleagues and instructors. “I can see this as a huge opportunity to serve my nation and hopefully be in this next batch of great leaders of America.” His advice to students is to never give up, lessons he learned primarily through athletics — football, track and baseball at STC and with West Point’s Sprint football team. He also urges students to seize upon opportunities presented — not to sleep in or let them pass by. O’Ferrall closed his Skype interview with a St. Christopher’s journalism class with the quote he aspires to live by: “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
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4
5
Memorial Day Service and Chamberlayne Breakfast Faculty and staff from all school divisions, along
Society, enjoyed breakfast in Ryan Dining Hall
with alumni who have celebrated their 50th
while hearing from Upper School Instructional
reunion, gathered once again for a Memorial
Technology Specialist Carey Pohanka about the
Day service May 19. Afterwards, the alumni,
school’s BUILD initiative.
6
who comprise the school’s Chamberlayne
9
7
8
Cary ’51, 1 Jim Tyler ’63 and Russ Parker ’63 7 Miles Tommy Williamson ’49, Bernard McCray ’52 2 Mo Miller ’41 and Dick Catlett ’39 Caravati ’55, Bill Stiff ’47, 8 Charlie 3 Henry Stillwell ’15 plays taps. Doug Chapman ’46 4 Mo Miller ’41, Otto Williams ’55 Fred Cox ’52, Bob Grymes ’51, 9 Rod Brown ’51 Satterfield ’64, Bernard 5 David McCray ’52, Tommy Williamson ’49, Wright ’47, Billy Hill ’38, Armistead Talman ’50 10 Wesley Malcolm Randolph ’60 Society members 6 Chamberlyne enjoy breakfast.
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Lauren Redniss
Translating the Creative Struggle
Around
CAMPUS
The Upper School summer reading format changed this year from a choice book to an all-grade read of “Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout,” a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award. Author/illustrator Lauren Redniss’s web site describes the work as a visual nonfiction, a combination of “art, reportage and cultural history to tell the story of the Curies’ partnership and to examine the contemporary reverberations of their discoveries.”
Author and illustrator Lauren Redniss
Ms. Redniss talked about the creative process in an October Upper School chapel and met with classes throughout the day to discuss all facets of her work -- the reporting, writing, illustrating and final compilation. “I crave them all,” she said. “Knowing that you’re going out in the world and are going to be surprised by what you find, that’s thrilling. That’s the euphoria. You’re learning something you can take back and ask, ‘How can I translate this?’ That’s the creative struggle.” The most fulfilling part, though, is connecting with readers. “That’s ultimately what gives things meaning, knowing that it’s meaningful for someone else,” she said. Drawing was an escape for Ms. Redniss as an introverted young girl, a way to slow down the time she always felt was slipping away too quickly. She talked about how her training as a dancer taught discipline still applicable to her work today. “I get up and start working,” she said. “It’s like what you do in ballet… you condition your body for these habits. It’s the same for my artwork.” She reiterated what she emphasizes to students at Parsons School of Design in New York where she teaches illustration. One is the idea of self education where the tools gained provide opportunities for lifelong learning. Second is the idea of perseverance, that talent is great but way
28 | StC
overrated compared to hard work. Third is the importance of community where those who surround you provide inspiration and support. Ms. Redniss also talked about the necessity for a lucky break, a “serendipitous encounter,” often needed to move forward. After being repeatedly rejected by publishers, hers was meeting someone at a friend’s house for dinner who offered a paltry advance for her untraditional book that didn’t fit an identifiable category. She does all her artwork by hand, including creating her own font for “Radioactive,” modeled from 18th and 19th century manuscripts unearthed from the New York Public Library archive. Ms. Redniss doesn’t follow any particular influence, but finds appeal in the narrative qualities and distortions of medieval art. “I’m not interested in realism, but more the symbolic meaning,” she said. “It’s like what you might see in a religious painting where Christ is huge and the people are tiny. Those symbolic images can be visually exciting.” In “Radioactive,” Ms. Redniss used an early 20th-century printing process called cyanotype, critical to the discovery of X-rays and radioactivity, where paper is coated with lightsensitive materials and then exposed to the sun’s UV rays to turn it a deep blue color. The book’s cover glows in the dark. Ms. Redniss is also the author/illustrator of “Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfield Follies” as well as the recently published “Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future.” Since 2001, she has contributed to the New York Times op/ed page with unorthodox drawings that explore issues in the news. She was a fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars & Writers at the New York Public Library in 2008-09, the recipient of a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship and was named artist-in-residence at the American Museum of Natural History in 2013.
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AROUND CAMPUS
Dr. Wilhelm Verwoerd
Finding Resolve Among Conflict Wilhelm Verwoerd opened his talk to St. Christopher’s students with a family photo that included himself as a baby being fed a bottle by his grandfather, the South African prime minister who engineered the legal separation of blacks and whites.
danced in the streets. He had no idea that the public knifing of his grandfather, a time of sadness and mourning in his community, was viewed by others as liberation. He spent the next five years “trying to make sense of what is the truth.”
For Dr. Verwoerd, the picture speaks to what he inherited from people who came before, a long history of racial conflict and discrimination. The image belied future familial discord where the grandson would reject that social system known as apartheid.
“We were conditioned to be blind to the suffering of other people,” he said. “It took me a long time to feel and see what we were doing to fellow human beings. A lot of my lifelong journey was unlearning what we were taught in school and at church.”
“We are born into a specific culture in a specific time, in a specific place into a specific family,” he said. “What I’ve learned over the years is that some of the challenge we face is to come to terms with who we are and everything we represent. No matter what that might be, we have to find ways to live fully within our communities and within our own lives so that we can make a contribution to a much larger world.”
Traditional African culture mandates respect for one’s ancestors. He could not change the color of his skin, his culture or family, but to help change the inherited system he considered joining the African National Congress led by Nelson Mandela, whom his family viewed as a terrorist. Upon their first meeting, Dr. Verwoerd introduced himself and launched into an apology for his family’s role in Mandela’s 27-year imprisonment. He didn’t get far before Mandela interrupted to ask if he would convey his greeting to his grandmother.
In his talk to Middle and Upper School boys last fall, Dr. Verwoerd talked about growing up in a militarized, affluent white society that ingrained fear by spreading falsehoods about the African National Congress, that equal rights threatened the freedom their forefathers had fought and died for in the struggle for independence from Great Britain, that the ANC’s efforts to end segregation aligned with Communism and atheism. As a young man, Dr. Verwoerd received a Rhodes scholarship to study at the University of Oxford. There he met young black South Africans who shared their perspectives as well as stories of his grandfather’s public assassination in 1966 when they took off their shirts and
30 | StC
“I felt like my family was being welcomed into South Africa,” he said. “The leader of the South African national movement was reaching out to me, and that became the moment for me that I decided to get involved with the ANC.” Mandela later invited the wives of former white prime ministers to his home for tea. Dr. Verwoerd’s grandmother, then in her 90s, declined saying she was too old to travel, but she reciprocated with an invitation, and Mandela flew by helicopter to her small town more than 1,000 miles from his presidential house in Cape Town to visit her.
Still the wounds cut deep. His father disowned him, but offered to reconcile if he withdrew from the ANC, a request Dr. Verwoerd equated to denying his humanity. “I understood that the evil of apartheid, the evil of segregation, of dividing people on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, is that we’re actually violating this fundamental truth of human beings, that we need each other, especially those who are different from us.” He and his father did not speak for a decade, but in recent years “managed to come together and more or less be together as a family again.” Now he focuses on peace work in areas of conflict through Beyond Walls, his England-based organization. In closing, a student asked him his favorite sport. Dr. Verwoerd’s response: cross country where he trained a couple hours each day before and after school, often running solo in the mountains. “Looking back I’m glad I had that shaping through long-distance running. I do believe that making peace or having empathy for your enemies is like running a marathon. It’s not a sprint… It’s an up-and-down journey with lots of hills, but we just need to keep going.”
“ If South Africa is to really change and overcome the legacy of segregation and apartheid, we need to find a way to live together. It’s not good enough to just talk about it. There is a difference between talking about social justice and doing something about it, and unless we are willing to commit and make these daily commitments to live and work together, in the end, we will not really change. Because we are living together we have the commitment to keep talking, finding ways to live together with all our differences, and I’m really glad to be part of it.”
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AROUND CAMPUS
Kwame Alexander
Don’t Let the “Nos” Define You By Ricky Stockel ’17 It’s around 2 p.m. as third, fourth and fifth graders gathered in the St. Christopher’s Lower School auditorium. Even after they were all seated, they were kicking their legs, chatting with friends and bouncing around full of restless energy. Smooth jazz played in the background. After a short introduction, a man in the center of the stage wearing jeans and a blue College of Charleston sweatshirt stood up and began chanting.
time the students’ laughter filled the room as Mr. Alexander said something funny. The author proceeded to tell everybody about how his book had been rejected more than 20 times before he found a publisher. As he spoke he read excerpts from his book, allowing students to fill in the blanks, and the kids shouted out lines without hesitation.
“When I say Kwame, you say cool,” he said. “Kwame.” “Cool,” all the students responded. He continued this chant for a while, and also started some others. The kids were practically bouncing out of their seats as they listened to this man speak. The speaker is Kwame Alexander who won the 2015 John Newbery Medal for his 2014 book “The Crossover,” the fictional story of two young basketball players as they navigate through adolescence and learn about their mother and father and themselves. The differentiating part of the book is how it is written as if it were a poem, incorporating rhyme and rhythm into its form. The author came to St. Christopher’s Lower School to talk about his writing and the process of getting it published, which was actually a very long one. Mr. Alexander has been writing poetry since he was a child. In fact, when he was little, he wrote his first poem for his mom. It started out,“I hate Mother’s Day.” The students cracked up as they heard this, and that wouldn’t be the last
Lower School Learning Commons Coordinator/ Librarian Lucinda Whitehurst, who served on the 2010 Caldecott and 2015 Newbery book award committees, invited Kwame Alexander to speak to Lower School students.
32 | StC
He reminded them repeatedly that even though he kept getting turned down by publishers, he spent years revising and never gave up. “Nos are a part of life” he said. “You can’t let the nos define you.” Instead of focusing on all the times he was told no he decided to focus on another word – “yes.” “I’m a say yes kind of guy,” he said. His perseverance paid off because at 7:16 a.m. on Feb. 3, 2014, the morning after Super Bowl XLVIII, Mr. Alexander received a phone call telling him that his book was the recipient of the 2015 John Newbery Medal. Mr. Alexander even brought his medal and walked up and down the aisles showing it to everybody in the room. There is no doubt that the StC Lower School students will remember Mr. Alexander’s talk as well as his “say yes” attitude for a long time. Ricky Stockel is a staff writer for The Pine Needle.
Dr. Waitman Beorn ’95
Always Act on Your Beliefs Dr. Waitman Beorn ’95 spoke to students Nov. 13 exploring ethics and genocide. “How can we build the one and combat the other?” he asked. The newly appointed executive director of the Virginia Holocaust Museum shared personal experiences and provided inspiration for students to act on their beliefs. While part of an assault on an Iraqi military base in 2003, Waitman’s cavalry group targeted a potential bomb threat via civilian vehicle heading toward them at high speed. With adrenaline pumping and his gunner primed and waiting for orders, the then young lieutenant weighed the odds. He hesitated, and during those few minutes, the Toyota came to a screeching halt; the driver and passengers bailed and lay on the ground. They turned out to be innocent potential casualties, a father and his sons who had inadvertently cut through a military base under siege and on fire. Waitman told this story to illustrate bigger themes. One is that ethics is a muscle that must be trained like any other. Secondly, that we often have more time than we think to contemplate and choose. “Looking back I’m glad I took the time to make the right decision,” he said. “I would not be the same today if I had killed those people even though no one could fault me for doing so.” Finally, all of us set standards by our actions as well as our inactions. He urged students to consider whether they stand up for what’s right, whether
they correct offensive talk and behavior, whether they choose the harder right or give in to the easier wrong. The ethical decisions in genocide, he said, are not much different than these but on a larger scale with more at stake. He stressed that those most closely connected to the Holocaust murders, even the killers themselves, could have opted out without repercussions. “There will always be individuals prepared to commit evil,” he said. “Perhaps we cannot change that. Or perhaps that isn’t even important. Perhaps the silent majority of bystanders is most significant to us. When we do nothing, we provide the audience for the theater of genocide. Would acts of killings happen without onlookers? Perhaps, or perhaps not.” Waitman received his undergraduate education and officer’s commission in the Army at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and earned his master’s and Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of “Marching into Darkness: The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in Belarus,” an investigation of the local participation of the German Army in the Holocaust in the occupied Soviet Union. The book received the Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize for first book from Harvard University Press in 2014 and received an honorable mention for the German Studies Association’s Sybil Milton Award given every two years for the best book in Holocaust studies.
“ When the next genocide takes place and it will take place we must choose who we will be? Will we watch the synagogues burn or will we stop the evildoers at the door? We must already have built our ethical muscle in the small moments before we can flex it in the big ones. We must take the time to think and choose the more ethical path even when events seem to be overtaking us, and we must realize that inaction is a form of action, and that we are defined by what we do in the face of genocide not by what we say.”
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St. Christopher’s Challenger Party
5
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A donor recognition event May 27, 2015 7
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8
2 10
9 Siewers, Teddy Damgard, 1 Johnny Malcolm Randolph ’60
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4
Chip and Jane Hall Hudnall Ware ’50, Janie Norfleet and Rob Norfleet ’58, Betty Byrne Ware, Sam Bemiss ’73, Thurston Moore
2 3 Corell and Thurston Moore Gordon Wallace ’55, Lizzie Wallace, Shelt Horsley IV ‘81, Elizabeth Horsley, 9 Al Sydnor ’57, Jan Sydnor 4 John Burke ’70 10 Penny Lowrey and Kendall Parker ’48 Marietta and Floyd Dormire ’49, 5 Ann and Boo Oppenhimer ’49 “Squirrel” Daniel and 11 Colleen Jim Daniel ’52 6 Penny Kyle and Charlie Menges Farhad and Amanda Aghdami
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HOMECOMING The Sept. 26 annual event brought together Saints of all ages. Highlights included varsity football’s 39-7 victory over Norfolk Academy, recognition of senior players and their parents, and a three-mile fun run around the University of Richmond.
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37
PERFORMING ARTS
High School Musical: “ The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” By Henry Rodriguez ’18
If you didn’t find some time to view Ampersand’s phenomenal November
James Cocuzza ’17, in his first role at St. Christopher’s as hapless hippie
performance of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” you must
Leaf Coneybear, played an enthusiastic boy who spells words in hypnotic
be a saxicolous troglodyte.
trances and must defend his intelligence from his large family in an
“Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” By Drew Brown ’21 and Finn Gardner ’21
energetically performed solo, “I’m Not That Smart.” Those words are featured in the musical, and they basically mean “you live under a rock.” In this interactive performance audience members were
Chip Tolentino’s (Pierce Walmsley ’16) is comically eliminated from the
invited up alongside actors on stage to participate.
competition after being distracted by the awakening of puberty while gazing at one of Leaf Coneybear’s sisters.
This October students from the St. Christopher’s and St. Catherine’s Middle Schools came together and put on a performance of “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” based on the book by Judy Blume. It is about a fourth
Six young contestants, alongside four real spectators, compete in the annual County spelling bee in an elimination tournament where the
The set design was simple but effective. The cast was seated on bleachers
winner receives $200 and each loser, a juice box. The quirky, endearing
with a separate table for the two judges. Two large basketball hoop props
competitors strive to convince the audience that they have a personality
on either side of the stage named the setting as an indoor gymnasium. The
school assignment about the most important thing that has
outside of being “automatons.” Their hilarious interactions on their quest
most impressive part of Ampersand’s stage design was, once again, the
happened to him this year. Peter tells the story of how his
to be Putnam County’s top speller made the play an exciting and fun
backdrop: a display of long, spelling bee type words such as “ostentatious” on a bold background of red that looked bright pink when the lights
3-year-old brother, Fudge, has ruined his life. In the script
experience, decidedly lighter than Ampersand’s recent performances of “Amadeus” and “Twelfth Night.” Humorous diversions include touching on
dimmed. The ambience was well illuminated and only dimmed during
Peter is a boy. In our play we changed the name to Penny
contemporary pop culture and political figures, notably Donald Trump.
characters’ expositional flashbacks.
Wendy Hatcher when a girl was assigned to play the part.
Jeffrey Pohanka ’16 played William Barfeé, a stuffed-up, sarcastic,
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” kept audiences shocked,
overachieving contestant who is clearly in the bee to win the prize and prestige, not to make friends. He possesses a “magic foot,” which spells out his words for him on the floor, a trait that only inflates his ego. These aspects make his relationship with Olive Ostrovsky (Katie Jennison), which starts out as a fierce (but one-sided) rivalry, seem that much more unlikely yet heartwarming as Barfeé develops a crush on her and they become friends by the end of the play. For her part, Jennison’s expert delivery of the song “I Love You” was appropriately sad and haunting, providing a contrast to the lighter nature of the musical that seemed fitting.
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grade boy named Peter Warren Hatcher who is writing a
With only a month to practice, the two schools were able to
awed and entertained throughout its two-hour duration. Ampersand took
put on 1.5-hour long show. Normally the Middle School plays
more than a few risks with their newest production, and they have certainly
are only 45 minutes to an hour. Everybody did a great job,
set the bar much higher for their winter one-acts.
onstage and off stage, and we are all looking forward to the
Henry Rodriguez is a staff writer for The Pine Needle, which ran a version of this story in December.
winter/spring production of “Peter Pan.” Dre Brown and Finn Gardner are staff writers for The Paper Boy, the Middle School newspaper, which ran a version of this story in November.
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2015–2016
New Board Members Board of Governors
Alumni Board
Christopher B. Boggs ’89
Wade K. Blackwood ’93
Christopher Boggs, president of Property Investment Advisors Inc., received his B.A.
Wade Blackwood, chief executive of the American Canoe Association (www.americancanoe.
in economics from Washington & Lee University and his MBA from the Darden School
org) and Team USA Canoe/Kayak (www.teamusa.org/USA-Canoe-Kayak), founded
at the University of Virginia. An active STC alumnus, he has served on the Alumni
Mobjack Binnacle Products, an environmental solutions company for outdoor enthusiasts.
Board and the Challenger Committee as class agent and co-chaired his 25th Reunion
Wade received his B.A. in history from Hampden-Sydney College and graduated from
Committee. Chris has also served as a youth soccer coach and team manager and
the Raymond A. Mason School of Business at William & Mary. He was a Peace Corps
coaches Geronimo Lacrosse. He and his wife Caroline have two sons at St. Christopher’s,
economic development volunteer in Honduras and serves on a Federal Advisory Committee
ninth grader Charlie and seventh grader Sammy, and a daughter Kendall.
for the National Park Service and on the board of the Washington, D.C.-based Outdoor Alliance that seeks to conserve America’s public lands. Wade and his wife Lindsay have two children Eleanor, a first grader at St. Catherine’s, and Spencer who is 4.
Cleighton L. Hilbert, Jr.
J.P. McGuire Boyd ’60
Cleighton Hilbert is senior vice president and director of Davenport & Co. He
McGuire Boyd is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Hampden-Sydney College where he received
received his B.A. in psychology from Wake Forest University and his MBA from Duke
his B.A. in mathematics. After 21 years at United Virginia Bank (Crestar) where he was
University. Cleighton currently serves on the boards of The Richmond Community
vice president of bond trading, McGuire moved to Davenport & Co. in a similar role. He
Tool Bank, St. Andrew’s School, Davenport and Richmond Little League. He also
and his wife Hylah have two sons, McGuire ’93 and Jack ’94, and a daughter Hylah who is
volunteers for Junior Achievement. He and his wife Stewart (St. Catherine’s ’93)
married to Greg Ballowe ’89. His grandson McGuire is a fourth grader at St. Christopher’s.
have three sons at St. Christopher’s, seventh grader Cleighton, fourth graders Luke and Wright, and a daughter Janie, a fourth grader at St. Catherine’s.
Lydia Jones Johnson, M.D.
Taylor S. Brannam ’05
Lydia Johnson is a dermatologist with Dermatology Associates of Virginia where she
Taylor Brannan is a vice president in charge of estimating and project management at
was selected physician president in November 2014. A graduate of St. Catherine’s,
the Ashland-based commercial construction firm F. Richard Wilton, Jr. Inc. He received
she received her B.S. in biological sciences from Stanford University. Lydia graduated
his B.S. in building construction from Auburn University. Taylor serves on the executive
from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, completed her internship in internal
board of the Associated General Contractors of Virginia and is a community board
medicine at University of Chicago Hospitals and her residency in dermatology at Brown
member at Child Savers. He and his wife Megan have a 1-year-old daughter Ainsley.
University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Past board appointments include the University School of Medicine Alumni Board, Ellett - St. Catherine’s Alumnae Board, Library of Virginia, the Richmond SPCA and the Richmond Ballet. She volunteers at St. Christopher’s and remains involved in her alma maters. Lydia and her husband, Kenneth Johnson, have two sons in Lower School, third grader Gavin and second grader Collin.
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41
REUNION WEEKEND
REUNION WEEKEND
1
Mason Williams ’65, Frank Pearsall II ’65, Evan Chesterman III ’65, Louis Ryan ’65
and Hal Purcell ’65, Tom Baker ’75, 2 Anita Mike Krupin ’65
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Easterly ’65, Mike Krupin ’65, 3 Frank Charlie Blanton ’65
4 Betsy and Rives Hardy, C.W. Stacks Margaret Evans, Marwin Wright ’85, 5 Mary Tom Evans ’85, Erik Peterson ’85
5 1
6 Eddie Leake ’47, Shelt Horsley IV ’45 7 Sorrel and Jack McElroy ’49
2015
Erdle ’05, Claudia Oddi, 8 Nick Chris Young ’05, Ashley Young
Great Saints Party
Fergusson ’78, Robin Smith, 9 Berkeley Tyler Harris ’65, Frances Harris
6
Maxwell ’10, John Nicholl ’67, 10 Evan Hank Gibson ’67, Sandy and Lewis Buford ’65
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9
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REUNION WEEKEND
2015
Reunion Events
1990 Varsity Baseball The 25th reunion included a gathering of the 1990 varsity baseball team, Coach Tony Szymendera’s first to win a Prep League title.
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4 Alumni Fun Run Saints of all ages gathered on the steps of Scott Gym following a three-mile loop from St. Christopher’s to the University of Richmond and back.
Reunion Golf Gathering
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Bottom Row: Kyle Konrad ’05, Russell Bowles ’77, Geoff Wrinkle ’85, Robbie Ware ’90
46 | StC
1975 Classmates Page Moffat, John Molster, Jay Moore, Billy Mauck, Randy Wright, Tom Baker
Second Row: Nicholas Erdle ’05, Chris Young ’05, Austin Harris ’00, Teddy Smith ’90, Tom Baker ’75, Freeman Jones ’75
2
1985 Classmates Pat Houghton, Phil Jones, Read Goode
Top Row: Knox Hubard ’92, Colin Morrison ’01, English teacher John Green, Glenn Oaken ’80, former track coach Bruce Nystrom, C.W. Stacks, Tom Evans ’85
3
1993 Classmates Wade Blackwood, Roby Hackney, Charles Ayers, Connell Mullins
4
1995 Classmates Charlie Wodehouse, Willson Craigie, Hunter Frischkorn, Mason Ayers, Bernly Bressler, Procter Fishburne
5
Armistead Blanton ’97, Matthew Gehring ’97, Jon Bliley ’98, Tommy Huffman ’98
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REUNION WEEKEND
Alumni Chapel
Class of 1970
Current and former StC faculty members and administrators joined Writer-InResidence Ron Smith after his talk.
at the home of Dorothy and Alan Stone Front Row: Leigh Frackelton, Wat Bryant, Wingo Knowles, Alan Stone, Brad Cann, Earl Dickinson, Sam Richardson, Bob Bedinger Back Row: Lewis Powell, Will (Brother) Scott, Cabell Moore, Robert Pratt, Wesley Dunn, Ted Ellett, Paul Harris, John Doswell Not pictured: Doug Long
Class of 1965 at the home of Lucy and Julien Williams Front Row: Evan Chesterman, Frank Pearsall, Tuck Ferrell, Jim Blackwell, Lewis Buford Second Row: Fred Williams, Fred Rea, Don Eason, Mac Bates, Rusty Romaine Third Row: Rodney Poole, Knox Hubard, Billy Grigg, Julien Williams, Kip Campbell, Wilson Funkhouser, Pat Branch Fourth Row: Tyler Harris, Randy Boyd, Riker Purcell, Charlie Blanton, Frank Easterly, Eddie Andrews, Charlie Chewning, John Morgan, Louis Ryan, George Budd, Saint Pinckney, Ward Wood Fifth Row: Tom Meade, Mason Williams, Phil Hughes, Bucky Wilson, Chip Vaughan, Ed Rucker, Ed Kellam; Sixth Row: Charles Ewing, Bayliss Sharp, Dick Tucker, Curt Jernigan, Hal Purcell, Lou Jeffries Back Row: Chuck Houser, Hugh Tompkins, Stuart Flanagan, Joe Knox, Mike Krupin, Rives Hardy, Larry Brydon, Brad Davenport, Ron Smith
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Class of 1975 at the home of Brenda and Ron Cain Front Row: Bill Puckett, Chuck Dietz ‘76, Ben Tompkins, Trey Hatcher, Billy Mauck, Ron Cain, Bill Gillespie, John Whitlock, Glen Todd, Peyton Dodson Second Row: Erik Koroneos, Ron Thomas, Basil Jones, Andy Harlfinger, John Molster, Mark Powell, Randy Wright Back Row: Tom Baker, Hatcher Crenshaw, Billy Roper, Howard Basnight, Jay Moore, Massie Valentine, Freeman Jones, Bobby Garland, Page Moffatt, Jeff Rebman, Rusty Starke Not pictured: Walter Lindsay, Bill Harrison
Class of 1980
REUNION
at the home of Betsy and Bill Tyson Front Row: Andy Blanton, Lou Doherty, Romain Kang, Tommy Talley, Bill Tyson, Mayo Oppenhimer, Church Young, Turner Hunt Back Row: Greg Hadley, William Wilson, Clark Halladay, William Tyler, Lloyd Bird, Compton Ware, David Griffiths, Will Clarke, Andy Ranck, Bob Burke, Randy Harrell, Glenn Oken
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REUNION WEEKEND
Class of 1985
Class of 1995
at the home of Anne and Jim McVey
at the home of Marie and Mason Ayers
Front Row: Mike Nelms, George Alston, Gene Bowles, Peter Farley, Geoff Wrinkle, Erik Peterson, Marwin Wright, Stratford Ward
Front Row: Charlie Bigley, Carey Bliley, Cole Clarkson, Mason Ayers, John Adamson, Mac Jamieson, Andy Vorenberg, Alex Burnett, Andy Featherstone, Fred Smith
Second Row: Billy Lambrinides, Stuart Cary, Hunt Gunter, Tommy Coulbourn, Manoli Loupassi, Derek McCown, Phil Jones, Tom Evans, Pat Houghton, Jim McVey, Hill Brown
Back Row: Ross Gibson, Peter Broadbent, Dyke Jones, Willson Craigie, Bernly Bressler, Richard Griffith, Hunter Frischkorn, Procter Fishburne, Russ Rabb, Jamie Kane, Robert Cox, Brandon Heskett, Charlie Wodehouse
Back Row: Charles Westfall, Tyler Whitley, Rich Walker, Chad Clinger, Tommy Dew, Kirk Blackard, Michael Gregory, Beau Hurst, Giles Tucker, Ren O’Ferrall
Not pictured: Joe Perini
Not Pictured: Read Goode, Ralph Mooz, David Neely, Scott Shaheen and Billy Walker
Class of 2000
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at the home of Lacy and Joey Noble
REUNION
Front Row: Thomas Bryan, Charlie Moore, Peter Davis Second Row: Austin Harris, Alex Daniel, Joey Noble, David Galeski, Tommy Roper Back Row: Hamill Jones, Jimmy Hovis, James Stikeleather, Frederick Schutt
Class of 2005 at the home of Megan and Taylor Brannan Front Row: Eric Lipscomb, Daniel Atwood, Kyle Konrad, Patrick Howley, Chris Young, Clark Farley, Taylor Farley, Josh Wright, Matt Anderson
Class of 1990 at the home Lori and Ashby Hackney
Front Row: Robbie Fierro, Ashby Hackney, Dave Adler, Rob Brumley, Stefan Cametas Second Row: Carlisle Bannister, David Basto, Greg Suskind, Chris McCoy, Brooks George, Dillon Bowles, Alex Mundin, Alexander Ellis, Robbie Ware Third Row: Chris Webb, John Hodges, Hill Carter, Chris Hill, Francis Park Back Row: Durette Woods, John Jones, Ted Smith, Brett Havens, Taylor Benson, Carter Siegel, Brad Freitag, Chad Zakaib, David Hetherington, Brent Baldwin, Kevin McCown
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Second Row: Taylor Brannan, Hunter McDonald, Brandon Nunnally, Patrick Howley, James Hoffman, J.D. Jump, Charles Kramer, David Schafer, James Zocco, Todd Brengel, Matthew Conrad Back Row: Marko Ledjenac, Clay Bowles, Howard Bullock, Gabriel Mayer, Hugh Nicholson, Gibby Wright, Will Brown Not Pictured: Jack Reichner
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REUNION WEEKEND
Class of 2010
Washington, D.C. Reunion
at the home of Carol and Earl Dickinson
at The Metropolitan Club
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Front Row: Earl Dickinson, Jason Pacious, Evan Maxwell, Warren Snead, B Gottwald, Dillon Wright, Tucker Braden, Pat Delaney
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Back Row: Chris Delaney, Kyle Wittenauer, Robert Johns, Jack Jesse, Jono McCusty, Daniel O’Neil, Campbell Henkel, Seth Wagner, Hunter Brown, Will Vaughn, Chris Gill, Charles Haw, John McCann, Ben Waterland, John Asare Not Pictured: Drew Pangraze
Boston Reunion
Stuart Ackerly ’02, Kris Koenen ‘02
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Bobby Chewning ’70, Judy Hawthorne (St. Catherine’s ’75), Tim Carrington ‘69
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Chandler Pace ’07, Billy Abbott
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Dan George ’93, Jeff Conn ’96, Toks Ladejobi ’93
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Terrie Scheckelhoff, C. C. Sloan ’71, Smith Burke ’04, Mimi Burke
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at Post 390
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Laura Birdsey (St. Catherine’s ’96), Andrew Palmer ’06, Lily He Palmer
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Javin Jones ‘00, Quentin Reynolds ’91
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Hill Snellings ’80, Cary Rea ’63, John McCammond ’77
4 Alex Rolfe ’97, Jamie Kitces ’94
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4
2
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REUNION WEEKEND
Student News New York Reunion at the home of Lisa and Robbie Huffines
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Sallie and Charley Stillwell, Robbie Huffines ’83, Lisa Huffines
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Delores Smith, George Dunston ’87
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Larkin Nash (St. Catherine’s ’91), Henry McVey ’87, Laura McVey, Army Nash ‘91
Johnson ’04, Patrick Delaney ’10, Lon Nunley ’08, 4 Stephens Brian Kusiak ’08
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Saints Diabetes Team Raises Record $25,000
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at the home of Lilliboo and Jack Cronly Mimi and Johnny Burke ’70, Ginger and Wilson Trice ’68
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Seldon Tompkins ’62, Dick Wilson ’59, Lowndes Wilson ‘62
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Betsy Bredrup, Birck Turnbull ’83
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Lilliboo Cronly, Liz Patton, Chris Davis ’72, Jack Cronly ’69, Sallie and Charley Stillwell
In its fall fundraiser, the Saints diabetes team raised almost $25,000, the No. 1 effort for Central Virginia. Participants included freshmen Mason Cametas and Hunter Jenkins, second grader Hayes Brumley and St. Catherine’s students Kate Talley, Laura Kirby, Kate Bivens and Grayson Brumley.
Saints Excel in Scholastic Competitions Kudos to National Merit Semifinalist Nate Smith ’16 along with the following National Merit Commended students who are seniors this year: Jeb Bemiss, Will Brown, Max Dodge, Ryan Hansen, Nathan Johnson, Scott McGowan, Alyx McKinnon, Jonny Najarian, Pierce Walmsley, Ben Walters and David Weatherford.
River Saints 1
In August, Collin Mistr ’16 and Upper School Instructional Technologist Carey Pohanka took part in the Veterans Affairs Innovation Creation Series, a yearlong project that designs and develops technologies to improve care and quality of life for veterans with disabilities. The project culminated in a two-day competition where computer/engineering wunderkind Mistr came up with a compartmentalized water bottle with a rotating wheel that organizes and doles out pills. It was designed for a female veteran who takes 24 medicines in different combinations eight times a day.
The National Merit Scholarship competition is the nation’s oldest and largest merit scholarship program. Semifinalists score in the top one half of one percent of the more than one million high school seniors who take the junior year
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Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (PSAT). Commended students score in the top 5 percent. The academic distinctions are significant ones to colleges and universities throughout the country.
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STUDENT NEWS
STUDENT NEWS
St. Christopher’s Students Take Theatrical Performances to the Big Stage
Oustanding Student Recognized with Scholarship Award from Old Dominion EMS Alliance
Brothers Killian ’22 and Raif ’24 Winn alternated the role of Christopher Robin in the Virginia Rep Children’s Theatre production, “The House at Pooh Corner.” The show ran from mid-October to mid-November, and the brothers shared the role because of the many performances. Senior Coleman Cox played Mr. Banks in a November CharacterWorks Theater production of “Mary Poppins.” Fifth graders Ben Atherton and Oliver Gardner took part in the Richmond Ballet production of “The Nutcracker” at the Carpenter Center. The boys got involved through the Minds in Motion program last year at St. Christopher’s. Ben continued with Minds In Motion Team XL and takes lessons at Richmond Ballet. Oliver was accepted into the Stoner Winslett Scholarship Program early last year. Both boys danced in the party scene, Ben as the Green Boy and Oliver as Fritz.
including students with special needs. Participants met throughout the year to advance their musical ability, with their work culminating in a show at the Altria Theatre last summer where Kannon performed with singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles.
system who comes to grips with his oppression, throws off his yoke and and reunites with his forgotten family.
Ian Garrabrant ’18 took part in “Still Life with Iris,” a play put on last fall by HATTBox Players. In the fall of 2013, Ian auditioned for and was selected to join this resident youth troop and has performed in a fall play and a spring musical every
Sixth grader Scott Neely had a whirlwind fall with parts in two local productions, Virginia Repertory Theater’s play “Gypsy” where he was a newsboy in the eight-week run, as well as SPARC’s production of “Tarzan: The Musical” where he played the young main character. Eighth grader Josh Caven, played the young ape Terk, Tarzan’s best friend. Josh and Scott sang a duet,
year since. In this play, his fifth production, he played the role of Mr. Matternot, a victim of a corrupt
and Josh took on a different look with his signature head full of curls contained in a mohawk wig.
Old Dominion EMS Alliance recognized senior Alec Hale with a $1,000 scholarship for his outstanding contribution.
Students Take Sports to National Level This summer sophomore Nick Biddison competed for a chance to represent the United States in the Pan American games. Although he did not make the team, he was one of only 40 players tapped in the United States and recently committed to play baseball at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Fifth grader Carter Perkins and third grader Joseph Conner competed in the National Age Group Team Challenge in Germantown, Md. which selects the top three single age swimmers in each event to represent NOVA. Both participated in relays as well as individual events. Senior Charlie Swanson had a busy swimming summer. After Virginia Senior Champs where he swam for NOVA, his club team, he traveled to Indianapolis for NCSA Junior
Last year junior Kannon Noble took his talent to south Richmond for Live Art, an inclusive arts education program for students of all abilities,
Nationals where he won the 200 IM (individual medley that includes four strokes) and the 400 IM and placed third in the 200 breaststroke. He was also a part of the NOVA relays that won four out of five events. All of the relays and both Killian Winn ’22 and Raif Winn ’24 in the role of Christopher Robin in “The House at Pooh Corner”
L to R: Joseph Conner and Carter Perkins
IMs were state records. Then he went to San Antonio for U.S. Nationals where he swam three individual events and three relays. Two relays (400 medley and 800 freestyle) set the 15-18 and 17-18 national age group records. His 800 freestyle relay team placed third, while Charlie set a state record in the 200 breaststroke and broke his 200 IM state record from NCSAs. As one of the top two placing swimmers 18 and under in the 400 IM, he qualified to represent the United States at the FINA World Junior Championships in Singapore, his first international competition. There he placed fourth in the 400 IM, beating his state record. At the end of the summer, he was named to the US Junior National
Kannon Noble ’17 performing with Sara Bareilles
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Ian Garrabrant ’18 in “Still Life with Iris”
Josh Caven and Scott Neely
Team and now has three Olympic trial qualifying times.
This fall Charlie Swanson committed to swim at the University of Michigan.
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Faculty News Headmaster Charley Stillwell and eight faculty members attended the International Boys’ Schools Coalition conference in Cape Town, South Africa last summer. Mr. Stillwell and Dr. Kimberly Hudson discussed the launch of the Center for the Study of Boys and gave a talk entitled “Building Better Schools for Boys: Ensuring Relational Success.” Dr. Hudson also discussed how pairing Upper and Lower School boys helps foster an inclusive community. Upper School instructional technologist Carey Pohanka and Multimedia/Technology Specialist J.D. Jump explored how group maker projects participation creates a sense of belonging in high school boys. First grade teacher Betsy Tyson presented her action research on how participation in group maker projects fosters the development of empathy in primary-aged boys. Through her work as an IBSC Action Research Team Advisor, Laura Sabo supported an international team of researchers in presenting findings from their year-long investigation of “Boys as Makers.” She also welcomed
and trained the new team of “Boys as Global Citizens” action researchers. Mrs. Sabo, the Lower School Learning Commons librarian, is one of five teachers to serve in this advisory role, the only one from the United States. Middle School history teacher Derek Porter and fifth grade teacher Dorothy Suskind participated in their action research training, while Director of Global Engagement Fran Turner presented on partnering with parents K-12 to support Upper School exchange programs. “All of us came back with ideas and many connections with IBSC faculty from around the world,” Mrs. Turner said. “The power of being with colleagues from so many different cultures who share a similar mission is incredible.” In June Carey Pohanka attended a Seattle conference in preparation for the Global Online Academy class she’s teaching where students learn how to advocate for a cause. Dorothy Suskind, a self-described nerd, wrote a blog post for the Nerdy Book Club with numerous suggestions for good reads.
Melissa Hollerith and Jordan Lily, the deputy director of the White House Office of Presidential Correspondents, snap a selfie on the White House lawn.
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Check it out at: https:// nerdybookclub.wordpress. com/2015/10/19/a-reading-lifemaking-our-literacy-traditionsexplicit-to-the-children-we-teach-bydorothy-suskind/. Dr. Suskind also published an article in the September issue of academic journal Phi Delta Kappan on Authentic Assessment entitled “Living Assessment Passes the Test” and is teaching a content reading class at the University of Richmond for middle and high school teachers. Upper School Chaplain the Rev. Melissa Hollerith was invited to attend the White House welcoming ceremony for Pope Francis. Her invite came by way of a thank you she had emailed President Obama via the White House web site last summer. She wrote to express her appreciation for the president’s humane response to the mass shooting in Charleston, S.C., specifically his heartfelt eulogy given for the Honorable Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church pastor, who, along with eight others, was killed. She had no idea her note would lead to an invitation from the White House to meet her hero Pope Francis in September. Hamill Jones ’00 participated in a Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History Teacher Seminar “9/11 and American Memory” in New York City. Hamill said spending time at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum was incredibly powerful. “I had not been to the World Trade Center site since the winter of 2001, and my thoughts continually focused on all that had happened since that last visit, and the lives that were lost, and the families that were devastated.” The Upper School history teacher is one of three faculty members who teach the required senior elective, 9/11 to Now.
Lower School Learning Commons Coordinator/Librarian Lucinda Whitehurst was invited to speak at the Florida Association for Media in Education Conference about her work on the Caldecott and Newberry book award committees. Flight logistics proved challenging, so she skyped with the group instead. Middle School librarian Lisa Brennan served as a judge to a Library of Congress summer writing contest. She scored contest entries (from Mid-Atlantic states) from fifth and sixth graders who wrote about books that inspired them. Upper School English teacher Ron Smith remains active and engaged as St. Christopher’s Writer-inResidence and Virginia’s Poet Laureate. He participated in “The Battle of the Poets Laureate” at the Sport Literature Association Conference in Johnson City, Tenn., chaired a panel honoring poet and editor Don Johnson for his lifetime achievement award for service to sport literature and published a short essay about writing poetry entitled “Try This” in American poet Diane Lockward’s newsletter. At the Ezra Pound International Conference in Dorf Tirol, Italy, Mr. Smith gave a reading of his new poems, participated in a group reading and attended numerous panels and events. He delivered a talk, “Why Poetry?” to the Kiwanis Club of Richmond and wrote blurbs for three books of poetry, including David Huddle’s collection “Dream Sender.” This fall Mr. Smith was the featured speaker at a celebration of Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday in Norfolk and focused on Poe as the keynote speaker for the Amherst Glebe Arts program and as a presenter to students at Amherst High School and
Monelison Middle School. He gave poetry readings at George Mason University where he also served on a panel dealing with experimentation in poetry and moderated a panel at the James River Writers Conference. He presented the 2015 Library of Virginia Prize in Poetry to Steve Scafidi for his book “The Cabinetmaker’s Wife,” and his poem, “That Beauty in the Trees,” was published in Style Magazine’s newsletter. He served as judge and curator for the Carole Weinstein Prize in Poetry and on the Award Committee for the Poetry Society of Virginia Book Award. Upper School Jazz Band Director and faculty member John Winn performed with Idina Menzel (of Broadway “Wicked” fame, a “Glee” TV star and the voice of Elsa in “Frozen”) at Norfolk’s Chrysler Hall. He also took part in a recording session with Bruce Hornsby who wrote the music for a Spike Lee film that’s embedded in the new video game NBA 2K16. A string quartet Mr. Winn composed in 2009, “The More Things Change,” was performed at the Loon Lake Live! music festival in the Adirondacks. He was also the featured vocalist in a Frank Sinatra centennial concert tribute at Wintergreen resort. Theatre Program Director Rusty Wilson directed “The Flick,” a play by Annie Baker that won the Pulitzer last year. The one-week Cadence Theatre production sold out quickly and received rave reviews. Upper School Spanish teacher Asha Bandal attended a seminar in Lima, Peru for two weeks in August where she learned about Peruvian culture. Upper School teachers Stuart Ferguson and Ross Gitomer both tied the know this summer. Mr. Ferguson married Melanie Price in an outside wedding on Lake Martin,
Upper School teacher Stuart Ferguson and Melanie Price.
Ala., a location near where they met at Auburn University. Mr. Gitomer and Kellyn Enos were married at Holly Hedge Estate in New Hope, Penn. Interestingly, both couples hosted receptions in barns. Upper School math teacher Jim Boyd recently published four articles in “Mathematics and Informatics Quarterly.” These include: “Descartes and the Coordinate System in Action;” “The Precious Pearls of Steps:Series;” “Using Mathematica” and “A Visit to the Land of Knights and Knaves.” The latter two were co-authored with student Hunter Reinhart ’16. College Counseling Director Jim Jump was quoted extensively in an article on fairness in college admissions recently published in “The Chronicle of Higher Education.” He notes that what admissions offices prize most is what is rare: “The more you look like lots of applications, the less admissible you probably are. Having the grades and scores and courses is necessary to be competitive, but it’s not sufficient.”
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FACULTY NEWS
NEW FACULTY Last summer, Mr. Mayer attended the executive council meeting for the regional affiliate of the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Owings Mills, Md. He serves as bylaws chair for that affiliate, the Potomac & Chesapeake Association for College Admission Counseling. He also attended a conference at the St. George’s School in Rhode Island to discuss the state of college admissions and how to improve programs.
Upper School teacher Ross Gitomer married Kellyn Enos in New Hope, Penn.
In October, InsideHigherEd.com selected a post from Mr. Jump’s blog, Ethical College Admissions, as one of two selections for its “Around the Web” section for the fourth time this year. Another blog post was featured in a Spartanburg, S.C. newspaper College Guide insert. He was also the keynote speaker at the Senior Night program at George Marshall High School in Falls Church and part of a four-person admissions team that evaluated the College Counseling office at the Hill School in Pottstown, Pa. In November, Mr. Jump received the Outstanding Alumni Award from Randolph-Macon College. In July Scott Mayer, associate director of college counseling, JV baseball coach and baseball historian, gave a talk to The Tredegar Society at the American Civil War Museum, “Richmond, Reconstruction and Baseball.” To watch it, search his name and Richmond baseball on Youtube. Mr. Mayer was also interviewed for the Henrico County TV documentary, “The First Pitch: History of the Tuckahoe Little League,” which aired on HCTV midSeptember and can be viewed on the Henrico County website.
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Recently, Mr. Mayer has also been on the road visiting colleges in California, Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia. In October, he and Jim Jump attended the National Association for College Admission Counseling Conference in San Diego. This summer 18 faculty and administrators attended the Lausanne Learning Institute in Memphis where St. Christopher’s was honored as the 2015 Spotlight School for developing programs that have effected change while demonstrating best practices and serving as models and mentors for fellow schools locally, nationally and internationally. Speakers and their respective topics included the following: Middle School science teachers Mary Anderson and Mark Holloway, a STEM Engineering design process; Middle School English teacher Corydon Baylor, going paperless in the classroom; Academic Technology Director Hiram Cuevas and Information Technology Manager Jim Mayra handling school data and leveraging tech in crisis; fifth grade teacher Kim Harley, integrating technology into K-5 instruction; Upper School English teacher Sherman Horner, using technology in coaching; Sports Information Director Stephen Lewis, live student broadcasting; Assistant Head of School for Curriculum and Leadership Programming Sarah Mansfield, lessons in leadership; Lower School technology coordinator Sandi Margolis, coordinating library and technology staff and
curriculum; Upper School Spanish teacher Kimberly Mayer, promoting language proficiency; Upper School Spanish teacher Stephanie McCully, adapting classroom materials; Lower School academic support teacher Jen O’Ferrall, integrating reading and technology in elementary education; Upper School Head Tony Szymendera, professional development for innovative teaching; Upper School history teacher Greg Tune, learning in part through digital and online media as well as projectbased learning that incorporates technology; Middle School math teacher Christie Wilson, online database of math tutorials; and Middle School Academic Instructional Technologist Brian Zollinhofer, flipped classroom. Lower School Head Dave Menges also represented St. Christopher’s.
Jon Piper, Chris Whalen, Marsha Hawkins, Bucka Watson, Suzanne Hamon, Dontae Buck, John Asare
Upper School John Asare ’10 returned to St. Christopher’s after spending the second half of last year as an intern to the StC Academic Resource office while studying for the LSATs. This year he is teaching history, coaching strength and conditioning, helping in admissions and working with the Peer Advisors and the Saints for Social Justice group. The St. Christopher’s alumnus graduated with a degree in American studies from Tufts University. Baltimore native Dontae Buck is teaching English and religion and coaching football, basketball and lacrosse. Mr. Buck earned his B.A. in religion with a minor in rhetoric and public service from Hampden-Sydney College. During his time there Mr. Buck won several awards and scholarships and served as head resident advisor, a Big Sibling in Prince Edward Middle School, coach for Aspen Lacrosse Club and Bible study teacher. As a senior, Mr. Buck earned second team All ODAC honors in lacrosse for his face-off skills. Math teacher Suzanne Hamon graduated with a B.S. in math from Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. and earned a master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Dr. Hamon has been a junior high English instructor as part of a Japanese exchange and teaching program, a teaching assistant at the University of Iowa and a math instructor at St. Louis Community College. For the past 12 years, she taught math at John Burroughs School in St. Louis, from Algebra I to Advanced Topics, including an elective in Sabermetrics. A focus for Dr. Hamon at St. Christopher’s is community, inclusion and diversity.
Memorial Library’s new Head Librarian Marsha Hawkins graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism. She first worked in communications with BellSouth Business Systems and as a freelance writer in Atlanta before earning her master’s in library and information science from the University of South Carolina. Most recently, she worked as the Middle and Upper School librarian at The Steward School. In addition to working as a librarian, Mrs. Hawkins is a fitness instructor with Seal Team Physical Training and is helping advise the yearbook staff this year. University of Virginia grad John “Bucka” Watson teaches chemistry and biology and coaches swimming and soccer. Before entering the teacher licensure program at the University of Richmond last year, Mr. Watson worked as a clinical trials administrator for Health Diagnostic Laboratory in Richmond. A fixture on the local summer swim scene, he has coached at Westwood Club since 2006 and served as an assistant coach at Collegiate School, his alma mater, for three seasons. English teacher Chris Whalen is a recent graduate of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio where he was one of only nine members of the Honors program. After spending his junior year at the University of Exeter in England, Chris returned to write his senior project, a novella. The New Jersey native played soccer on an Academy team coached by Tab Ramos and was a D1 soccer recruit before choosing the D3 route and the English program at Kenyon. Mr. Whalen is also coaching soccer and basketball.
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NEW FACULTY
Isabel Shealy, Whitney Cole, Dana Kuhlen, Alison Campeau, Molly Trice; Not pictured: Katharine Antrim
Abbey Moring, Genia Rosenblum, Kathleen Hornik, Blair Whitley, Renee Riggs, Keith Dillard
Middle School
Lower School
Extended Day
Middle School history teacher Jonathan Piper (pictured on page 61) joined St. Christopher’s from Providence Middle School in Chesterfield County where he taught English language classes and directed Providence Leadership Academy, an elective program focused on team building, collaboration, public speaking and community service. This Virginia Commonwealth University alum’s diverse background includes working in information technology for the Department of Defense, on film sets for television and movies in New York City and as document control administrator for Philip Morris in Richmond. He is also coaching soccer and basketball this year.
Kindergarten aide Katharine Antrim received a bachelor of arts in special education from The University of Mississippi. She formerly worked as a Lower School educational resource program learning specialist at Charlotte Country Day School.
Keith Dillard has worked in sales for jewelry and women’s clothing. She also served as office manager for Maymont Partners Inc., a broker/dealer specializing in hedge funds and as officer supervisor for a Richmond employment agency. She received a B.A. in communications studies from the College of Charleston.
Renee Smith Riggs is a Wilmington, Del. native who graduated with a B.A. in English from Longwood University and received her teaching certification in secondary school English at the University of Richmond. She owns an events floral business and enjoys playing tennis in her free time.
Kathleen Hornik, who is bilingual, previously taught Spanish at J.R. Tucker High School and in the Upper School at St. Christopher’s before getting her M.S. in social work from the University of Texas at Austin. As an intern, she worked as a case manager for children with cancer and helped lead a support group for their families. After returning to Richmond, Mrs. Hornik worked as a therapist for Commonwealth Catholic Charities where she helped Spanish-speaking victims of human trafficking and provided training and support for foster parents. She also worked for Hallmark Youthcare as a therapist for residents and their families.
Genia Rosenblum graduated from the University of Mississippi with a degree in art education. After graduating she spent two years in Uganda with the Peace Corps. After that, she worked for six years as an art teacher making ceramics and working with children with learning disabilities in the Washington, D.C. public schools. In 2014 she moved to Richmond with her family and started working at StC part-time but joined this year as a full-time second grade Extended Day teacher.
Kindergarten teacher Alison Campeau previously worked as a tutor at St. Christopher’s for three years. She received her B.A. from the University of Virginia, a master of science in elementary eduation from Longwood University and an educational specialist degree in reading from U.Va. Whitney Cole, a 2015 photography major from Virginia Commonwealth University, is teaching digital photography in the Lower School. Fourth grade teacher Dana Kuhlen worked as a Shady Grove Elementary School classroom teacher and as a preschool substitute teacher before becoming a substitute teacher at St. Christopher’s and St. Catherine’s while facilitating National Geographic’s Giant Traveling Maps program at Collegiate School. She received a B.S. in psychology from James Madison University and a master’s of education in instruction from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. Isabel Shealy, who teaches Spanish in the Lower School, formerly worked at the Steward School and as a substitute teacher in Richmond. She received her B.S. in business administration with a specialty in general management from Universidad Metropiltana in Caracas, Venezuela.
Abbey Moring graduated from University of Colorado, Boulder with a B.A. in English literature and received her licensure in elementary education from the University of North Carolina, Asheville. She worked as a first grade and substitute teacher in Asheville city schools before moving to Richmond with her family. Last year she worked at St. Christopher’s as a long-term sub and part-time Extended Day teacher. She also tutors elementary age students and has been trained in the Orton-Gillingham Approach for language and reading instruction.
Blair Whitley, a Wake Forest University graduate, received her M.A. in teaching from Mary Baldwin College. She was a long-term sub in Extended Day last spring, and before that taught first grade at Maybeury Elementary School and St. Christopher’s and second grade at The Steward School.
Kindergarten teacher Molly Trice formerly taught at Fair Oaks Elementary School in Highland Springs and Cashell Donahoe Elementary School in Sandston. The Sewanee graduate has a B.A. in history and received her postbaccalaureate teacher licensure from Mary Baldwin College.
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Class Notes 1930s
1940s
1950s
The Hon. John R. Tucker, Jr. ’33 was spotlighted in a Virginia War Memorial feature of Virginia Heroes sponsored by Westminster Canterbury in honor of Veterans Day 2015. “Bunny” graduated from VMI in 1937 and was promoted to captain in the 3rd Armored Division in 1942. From 1944 into 1945 he led his tank unit through Normandy, across France, helped liberate the town of Mons, Belgium, participated in the Battle of the Bulge and witnessed the fall of Berlin. In Mons, the 3AD, along with the 21st Infantry Division killed or captured 30,000 German troops over three days of intense fighting and prevented them from defending the crucial Siegfried Line. For his role in the liberation of Mons, a bust of Bunny is prominently displayed in the town hall, and in 2000 a delegation of Belgians came to Richmond to honor their hero. By 1945, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, having earned two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. He also received a medal for participating in all five major campaigns in Northern Europe. At the end of the war, Bunny returned to Richmond and served in the House of Delegates from 1950 to 1958 and became a circuit judge in 1968.
STC classmates B.B. Munford III ’45 and Henry Valentine II ’45 were featured in a Sept. 13 Richmond Times-Dispatch article “Taking stock of 2 friends’ long careers at Davenport.” B.B. and Henry started the Richmond-based brokerage firm on the same day in 1950 and continue to put in daily work hours in the downtown office.
Miles Cary ’51 had a truly outstanding round of golf in February 2015 at the Boca West Country Club in Florida where he hit two holes in one and also shot his age, 81. The odds of two aces are one in 12,750. His first took place on the 105-yard seventh hole using a 9-iron. Miles used a pitching wedge from 100 yards on the par-3 13th hole for magic. These triumphs make Miles the owner of three holes in one during his golf career — the first earned at Golden Horseshoe Gold Club in Williamsburg in 1994 on the third hole.
Herbert A. Claiborne, Jr. M.D. ’41 was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Philanthropy award by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The AFP is a worldwide association that advances philanthropy by enabling people to practice ethical and effective fundraising through education, training, mentoring research, credentialing and advocacy. National Philanthropy Day, begun by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, is an annual event that celebrates accomplishments, both large and small, by outstanding philanthropists and volunteers. Hobie is currently board chairman of the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation where he has served since 1957. He has also served on the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation since 2003. More than $600 million from these foundations has been given to more than 90 Virginia nonprofits. (See Luck ’51.)
Harrison R. Tyler ’45 and his wife Payne were featured in an interview with CBS News reporter Mo Rocca for a “CBS Sunday Morning” broadcast on Presidents’ Day eve. It was filmed at Sherwood Forest, the plantation of John Tyler, Harrison’s grandfather who was president of the United States from 1841 to 1845. The interview focused on the fact that three generations spanned 222-plus years. Born in 1790, the year after George Washington took office, John Tyler was 63 when his son Lyon Gardiner Tyler was born in 1853. In turn, Lyon was 75 when Harrison was born in 1928. Harrison’s lineage includes President Thomas Jefferson, Presidents Benjamin and William Henry Harrison as well as numerous Jamestown settlers and Pocahontas. John H. W. Rein III ’49 has created a number of illustrations and pixel books featuring the fictitious Col. Chambers whose life mission is to put his audience in a good frame of mind with scads of intriguing adventures. These were on display in the October 2014 exhibit at the award- winning East Meadow Public Library in Long Island, N.Y. John has also written “Horsing Around with Col. Chambers” and held a book signing and slideshow at Long Island University’s CW Post Campus in July. His illustrations are available on his website, Amazon.com and on the App at the Apple Store.
Charles S. Luck III ’51 and his family were recognized at the Association of Fundraising Professionals National Philanthropy Day award ceremony. Nonprofit organizations that protect the environment, support the arts and help develop leaders of tomorrow have benefitted from the leadership and support which the Luck family has so generously given. The family members of True and Charles Luck ‘51 included in the Individual Philanthropist of the Year award are Lisa and Charles Luck IV ’79, Terrell and Elliott Harrigan, Cynthia and Shep Haw and Richard Luck ’08. (See Claiborne ’41.)
1960s their financial condition and getting to know them as friends as the forces that have kept him working for 56 years.
the bureaucracy and tactical maneuvering should come in handy when he signs on as babysitter for little Lily.
James B. Mitchell ’56 retired on June 30, 2014, after 49 years and two months with the Federal Housing Administration and HUD. He was a management intern in 1965 followed by time in legislative development and regulation drafting. He also served as special assistant to the secretary during the Carter administration. Jim lives in Bethesda, Md. with his wife of 42 years. Their grandchild, born in August 2014, lives only 10 minutes away. All those years of juggling
John P. Cann III ’59 taught and coached rowing at UVA until June 2014. Jack has written four books and is working on his fifth.
William S. Dingledine Jr. ’69, an independent educational consultant in Spartanburg, S.C., was named the winner of the Gayle Wilson Award, the top award presented by the National Association for College Admission Counseling to a professional who has performed outstanding service to the college admissions/counseling profession. M. Pierce Rucker II ’67 has been inducted into the Virginia Law Foundation Fellows Class of 2015. M. Holt Massey ’68 has been a participant in amateur theatricals at Boston’s Somerset
The Trip of a Lifetime Tales from Guy Horsley,
They embarked on the journey, each with about $300 in their pockets, but
Bumby Gresham and Le
by the final leg home, their wallets almost depleted, the young men lived
Frazier’s two month 1965
off salads and shakes and on the last day of their trip, bypassed I-95 to
cross country tour of 28
avoid tolls.
states, Canada and Mexico S. Buford Scott ’51, chairman of BB&T Scott & Stringfellow, a brokerage and investment banking firm in Richmond with more than 1,000 employees and 60 regional offices, was interviewed in a Richmond Times-Dispatch Sunday Q&A Jan. 4, 2015. Co-founded by his grandfather, Frederic W. Scott, Scott & Stringfellow was Buford’s first place of employment, starting as a “board boy” in 1958, scribbling stock price updates on a brokers’ board. So began his rise to become the firm’s chairman in 1974. He credits good health, giving clients the best possible investment advice for
hearken back to boys-coming-
At the anniversary celebration last July, Guy played the soundtrack of “My
of-age scenes in “American
Fair Lady,” a movie they saw in San Francisco, and decorated a room in his
Graffiti.”
house with 1965 vintage posters of places visited. After the celebration, they produced a computer generated book of photos and text documenting their
Last summer, these 1964 StC
adventure.
alumni celebrated the 50th anniversary of that trek from Richmond to San Francisco and home again.
Their recommendation to all students is to keep a journal of one’s life
They racked up 13,500 miles on the odometer of the 1960 Ford Falcon
experiences. Finding theirs after so many years was a gift. “Reading it again
station wagon that had no seat belt, airbag, GPS or safety bumper; driving
was like taking the trip again,” Bumby says.
entertainment came by way of the AM dial on the car radio.
As part of their reunion celebration, the three friends had a picture taken
Earlier last year, Le unearthed treasures buried in a trunk in his attic
in similar clothing and poses as the day they returned home in 1965. As
including receipts, tickets, menus and a diary. These mementos provide a
Guy says, “We lost some hair, gained some weight, settled with families in
vivid picture of what a difference 50 years makes, even with an allowance
Richmond and remained friends and loyal alums of St. Christopher’s.”
for inflation. In 1965, adult admission to a full day at Disneyland was $5 vs. more than $100 today; a ticket to a Giants/Reds baseball game, which now averages $50-plus, was $2.50. Their $3.50 crab dinner at Antoine’s in New Orleans now costs $32. Except for fuel cards, nationally accepted credit cards were several years away. Remember traveler’s checks? The trio took in some of the country’s most amazing scenery, including the Badlands, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, while learning how to be independent and to live in community. What they appreciated most was the camaraderie, born from an StC connection that still holds strong
FPO
today. Edmund Benson ’55, Porgy Moncure ’54, John Funkhouser ’55, Charlie Caravati ’55, Gordon Wallace ’55 and Otto Williams ’55 gathered for a mini-reunion last summer.
Le, the group organizer and record keeper, realized on day one that the tent and food, stuffed way back in the car, needed to be easily accessible. Guy specialized in food handling and cooking. Bumby, whom his friends describe as a “walking GPS,” navigated and cleaned up.
64 | StC
Guy Horsley, Bumby Gresham and Le Frazier
65
CLASS NOTES
1990s Club on Beacon Street. Holt reports that it’s referred to in the press as “‘the King of Clubs,” being the oldest from 1851. Plays are adapted to the local milieu. This year’s was “Dinner at Eight.”
Home Entertainment Inc. He is also a past president of the Direct Marketing Association of Washington. Stuart resides in Boise, Idaho and serves as vice president of the Episcopal Diocese of Idaho’s executive council.
Richard N. Herod ’69, longtime STC athletic trainer, received the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association 2015 Distinguished Service Award. Rick’s professional approach in physical rehabilitation has won him the respect and gratitude of countless clients who, thanks to the diagnosis and therapy they received at Richmond Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Corporation, walk, run, jump and move with greater ease and less discomfort. His dedication to St. Christopher’s and the hours that he volunteers to all teams of Saints has earned him the title of perhaps our most dedicated volunteer. Richard retired in November.
Thomas M. Baker ’75 had an article about growing up in the Fan in the “My Life” column of the Richmond Times-Dispatch about his years from 1957 through 1974, including his time at St. Christopher’s.
1970s James L. Agnew ’71 penned an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (June 9, 2015) Life section. Jim has been a law enforcement officer for 38 years, first as a state game warden and then as Goochland County sheriff. His entertaining piece described the effort and lessons learned while recapturing an escaped mama bear and two cubs safely and without injury to the captors. Mark A. Sauer ’71, executive vice president of sales for C.F. Sauer, was the focus of a Richmond Times-Dispatch article (January 2015) that named the company as one of 200 state firms that have boosted their focus on international markets with the aid of a state-run program. Sauer’s overseas exports have climbed from 10 to 16 percent of overall sales in the two years that the program has been used. The company also won the 2014 Governor’s Award for Excellence in International Trade. H. Stuart Hotchkiss ’73 wrote “Southern Fried Fiction: How the Insidious Onset of Depression Derailed A Successful Man’s Life,” a memoir about loss and mistakes written with a healthy dose of humor. Stuart is a former publishing chief who served as the executive creative director of Time Inc. and president of Time
66 | StC
E. Massie Valentine, Jr. ’75 was promoted to managing director at Davenport & Co. J. Bolling Lewis ’77 has retired after 33 years in banking. For 24 years he worked with Wachovia in Raleigh, Norfolk and Richmond. Since 2006, he managed Wells Fargo’s commercial real estate lending in Virginia. J. Gordon Valentine ’77 “traded in square feet for shutter speed” when he left a 31-year career in real estate to pursue his love of photography. Gordon Valentine Photography, which opened in November, has an office on Spencer Road, adjacent to the new Libbie Mill development. Thomas E. Gottwald ’79 is one of three people inducted into the Greater Richmond Business Hall of Fame in May 2015. Teddy became NewMarket Corporation’s chairman in July 2014 and has served as its president and chief executive since 2004 when the holding company was formed. He also had served as president and chief executive of Ethyl from 2001 to 2004. In a separate venture, Teddy and his wife Ann Parker acquired the historic Alexander-Withrow House and its across-thestreet neighbor, a former inn along Main Street in Lexington. After an extensive restoration of the two buildings, they operate a boutique inn called The Georges in honor of President George Washington and General George Marshall. The Washington building (at Washington and Main) and the Marshall building (slightly down Main Street) were previously purchased by the Historic Lexington Foundation. A December 2014 Metro Business supplement of the Richmond Times-Dispatch featured Harris Williams & Co., naming it the quietest deal-maker of Richmond for its national and international influence in mergers and acquisitions. Cofounded by H. Hiter Harris III ’79 with Chris Williams in 1991, the company works on behalf of sellers to determine the company’s value, find potential buyers, facilitate meetings between
buyers and sellers, evaluate offers and assist with negotiations. Typical deals are valued in the $100 million to $2 billion range or “middle market.” Harris Williams has grown from a two-man company to an international operation with 230 employees and eight offices worldwide. “We are very competitive in our business,” said Hiter, “but we have another side that is people-oriented, community-oriented and family-oriented.” Hiter has also been appointed to the board of directors of NewMarket Corp.
1980s
Adam C. Bankstom ’86 has joined the brokerage
Jethro H. Piland III ’92 was one of 66 individuals
repairs for a car owned by Tim Price who
firm of Connections Realty, LLC as a partner/
selected for Leadership Metro Richmond’s
was killed in action in Baghdad. Tim’s brother
owner.
flagship Leadership Quest. The 10-month
donated the automobile to a vet in need of
program with monthly classes and events,
transportation.
Walter E. Bundy IV ’86, former executive chef of
is designed to give participants a deeper
Lemaire in the Jefferson Hotel, was named Chef
understanding of the region as well as ways
Mason W. Bates ’95 was appointed The
of the Year at the Fourth Annual Elby Awards
to be better engaged in the community.
Kennedy Center’s first composer-inresidence. Mason has started a three-year
ceremony. Started by Richmond Magazine, the Elby Awards are named for Richmond chef Paul
Christian S. Thornton ’92 accepted the
term for the 2015-16 season. His duties
Elbling who opened and ran La Petite France
position as chief executive of AutoUpLink
include composing music for the center’s
restaurant for more than two decades. After more
Technologies, a SaaS software provider and
various constituents, curating a new
than 15 years at Lemaire, Walter is opening a
design firm headquartered in Charlotte, N.C.
contemporary-music series and working on
place of his own in Libbie Mill-Milltown off Staples
The firm provides technology and guidance
different forms of community and audience
Mill Road.
to the automotive industry in the United
inclusion. Mason also has a flourishing career
States and Canada. Christian, a partner at the
as a DJ in dance clubs across the country
Robert Hurt ’87 is serving his third term (Rep.
firm, lives in Charlotte with his wife Karen and
performing as DJ Masonic.
5th District) in the Virginia General Assembly and
their children Emma and Connor. In June 2015, Waitman W. Beorn ’95 became
hopes to run again in 2016. His district covers Photographer Gregory M. Hadley ’80 received the Contractors Choice Award from the D.C. chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. Only one award is given each year to an associate or subcontractor who has provided outstanding service to member contractors. John D. Fergusson ’81 has acquired Printing Services Inc. and will merge it with his established design, print, mail business, Allegra. Eventually both will be located on Jacque Street in Richmond and will conduct business under the Allegra name. John strives to be the leading valueadded marketing communications provider in the area with a focus on businesses and nonprofits. J. Ross Peters ’83, the former Upper School head at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta, was named head of St. George’s Independent School in Memphis in July. He gained previous leadership experience from Hawken School in Ohio, as well as Asheville School and Providence Day School in North Carolina. Ross was formerly an English teacher and tennis/lacrosse coach. Alexander M. Macaulay ’83, a Richmond lawyer and lobbyist, was the recipient of the NAMI Virginia Joshua S. Collins Award for Excellence for his contributions to the area of mental health. John M. Woolard ’83, vice president of energy at GOOGLE, was the keynote speaker at Enrichmond Foundation’s 25th anniversary and Earth month celebration. R. Scott Shaheen ’85, senior vice president of Southern Virginia Region of Long & Foster/ Christie’s, was the recipient of the 2015 Foster Cup which is awarded annually for top performance.
10,000 square miles and stretches from the North
USA Canoe/Kayak (USACK), the U.S. Olympic
the director of the Virginia Holocaust
Carolina border to Prince William County. A
and Paralympic paddlesports governing
Museum in Richmond. Waitman reports that
federal court mandate that congressional districts
body, is preparing for 22 men and women’s
he is “looking forward to the accompanying
be redrawn could affect the results of the next
canoe and kayaking medal events at the
new challenges and adventures” in his
election. Robert embarked on a two-day Main
2016 Summer Olympic and Paralympic
professional life. Most recently he was an
Street tour to visit businesses in several towns
games to be held in Rio De Janeiro. Wade K.
assistant professor of history and a Louis
and cities to hear firsthand how they’ve been
Blackwood ’93, American Canoe Association
and Frances Blumkin professor of Holocaust
impacted by the economy.
(ACA) executive director, was selected and
and genocide studies at the University
will also serve as USACK’s chief executive. In
of Nebraska at Omaha. Waitman is most
Timothy C. McCoy, Jr. ’87 is now principal, head
the double role, Wade will continue ACA’s
interested in the unstudied area of the role
of business development of The London Co. in
educational and stewardship programs
of the German soldiers under Nazi rule and
Richmond.
and pair them with the elite competition
has spent his career researching their stories,
disciplines of USACK.
down to the lowest military levels. His first book,
Edward Lumpkin ’88, a business law partner at Christian & Barton in Richmond, serves the Children’s Home Society as board chairman. In a January 2015 Richmond Times-Dispatch article
“Marching into Darkness; The Wehrmacht and Robley D. Bates IV ’94, a Marine veteran and
the Holocaust in Belarus,” won the 2014 Harvard
owner of Chesterfield’s Express Oil Change
University Press Thomas J. Wilson Memorial
& Service Center, donated the necessary
Prize. He hopes to expand the museum’s
about the adoption agency, Eddie and his mother were shown in a 1970 photo soon after he was adopted. The article explored the history of the agency that started out placing homeless children and orphans and then transitioning to children with medical issues who would eventually go into foster care. Carter P. Brooks ’89 is first vice president of investments for Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC in Richmond.
Matthew Gehring ’97’s beloved teddy (far left in photo from 1985 Raps & Taps which unfortunately cut off Matthew) is still alive and well. Now in the care of his son Wright ’27, pictured with twin brother T ’27, B.B. (which stands for Basic Brown Bear) reappeared on campus for last year’s kindergarten “hibernation day.”
67
CLASS NOTES
2000s exhibits and content to include voices and viewpoints from the Holocaust that currently are missing, while preserving and sharing its collection of oral histories from Virginians who experienced the Holocaust directly or indirectly.
C. Armistead Blanton IV ’97 served as Young Professionals board chair which gave significant support to Greater Richmond Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) during National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
David L. Blanchard ’96 joined the Richmond office of Digital Benefit Advisors, a national employee benefits firm, as a principal and regional director of strategic client service. Formerly an account manager at Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Richmond, he joined Dominion Benefits in 2006 and became principal in 2010. David served as the lead contact for multiple strategic accounts and was named practice leader for municipalities and schools in 2011. In 2013 he founded BeneFinder, a national health and welfare consulting firm for individuals navigating the new health insurance marketplaces.
Ashby W. Price ’97 has earned the Chartered Retirement Plans Specialist designation from the College for Financial Planning as well as the Accredited Investment Fiduciary designation. Ashby is an investment advisor with Richmondbased Capstone Financial Partners.
James E. Britton ’99 was named Caroline County High School’s 2014 Teacher of the Year. Jeb has taught math at Caroline High School for the past 11 years. He is the chairman of the math department and teaches AP Calculus and Honors Algebra II. During the summer, Jeb is the administrator for Caroline High School’s summer school programs.
Lee G. Lester ’98 was promoted to partner at the Richmond law firm of Williams Mullen. His practice focuses on securities and general corporate law.
Tyner Brenneman-Slay’s ’00 6-year-old business, 24Hr HomeCare was ranked in the top 10 in the country by Forbes Magazine in February 2015. Two years ago the company, which has offices in California, Arizona and Texas, was #27 and last year #24. Thomas P. Bryan IV ’00 has taken a position with Club Properties in New Orleans where he is a sales and leasing executive. David S. Galeski ’00 has joined the law firm of Duane, Hauck, Davis & Gravatt, P.C. as an associate attorney where he practices litigation, focusing on insurance defense, personal injury law and criminal defense. With its origin developed from a chia seedselling business focused on providing nutrientrich, high-energy food, the line of Health
Warrior energy bar products has developed into a nationally recognized company. Austin R. Harris ’00 joined the company as chief financial officer just as the company’s line of chia bars was launched in all Whole Foods stores. With offices in New York, Boston, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, Health Warrior’s 75 employees are focused and committed to making their products available to as many customers as possible. James I. Whiteman ’00 relocated to New York from London in January 2013 and now lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. His daughter Olivia was born April 8, 2014. Jamie was recently promoted to director in Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s global banking and markets division.
John D. P. Coggin ’01 recently joined the nonprofit Richmond Region Energy Alliance as solar educator. He marketed the Solarize RVA campaign, which ran from April 22 to July 15 last year and connected Richmond area energy customers with discounted solar systems and free home energy audits. Learn more at www.solarizerva.org. Paul M. Evans ’01 has joined United Methodist Family Services of Virginia as communications coordinator. In that role, Paul creates compelling content for its quarterly newsletter, manages websites and social media and oversees internal and external communications. Paul is also the youth ministry assistant at Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Richmond.
Paul Bullock ’98: From StC School Writer to Screenwriter by Kurt Jensen ’11 The day Paul Bullock ’98 arrived in New
to writing for the screen. “It was Shakespeare; we read 12
York City with a brand new lease and an
plays in 12 weeks,” says Paul. “That experience of spending weeks and
unexpected job as a production assistant
weeks reading plays - I could see the way dialogue was put on a page,
on a reality show, he was informed the
and it was so informative and laid the groundwork for what I do today.”
show was cancelled. A series of unfortunate events, including a hiring freeze at the record label where he originally planned to work, left Paul stranded in New York, unemployed, with no experience in television. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” he says. Sixteen years ago, Paul was a senior at St. Christopher’s with a dream of becoming a professional writer. “I’d always been a writer since I’d been a kid, but I had no professional example of how to be a writer,” he says. “I had never really been exposed to it.”
“That intensive period really informed my journey towards being a professional writer,” he says. But how does that translate to the “real world” of writing - a world dominated by television and its two imposing hubs, New York City and Los Angeles? “It’s a fascinating part of being from where we’re from,” says Paul. “I didn’t understand what it was or how it works, or even how to approach it, what the life of a professional writer would be like, let alone a professional television writer.” Stranded and unemployed, Paul finally caught a break, a paying job, as a runner on the set of “Ed.” From there, his boss connected him with an
Thinking back on his time at St. Chris, Paul realizes how much the
interview for a production assistant position at “Law & Order: SVU,” what he
environment and the people shaped him. He says he was lucky to have
refers to as his “first real job.”
former Headmaster George McVey as his advisor. “He was incredibly supportive of all my interests in music and in film,” says Paul. “He really gave
After a year, Paul returned to “Ed” as a writer’s assistant, a liaison between
me the confidence to know I could do anything.”
the writing staff and production office, and eventually moved across the country to work as a writer’s assistant on “Desperate Housewives,” where he
Of course, the English faculty inspired him as well. “Guys like Key Randolph
got the opportunity to write his first episode for television.
and Jay Wood and Ron Smith - they instilled in me this love of literature,” says Paul. “I still remember Strunk & White from Jay Wood - omit needless
“I remember writing my first episode, and I can’t believe I’m seeing this
words,” he says, laughing.
actor read the lines I wrote,” says Bullock. “It was something I dreamed about for so long.” When the episode was a success, “Desperate
But it was a senior English elective with Ron Smith that was his introduction
68 | StC
Housewives” brought Paul onto the writing staff.
He credits his mentors and his hard work for what he was able to accomplish. “I was very fortunate to have a group of older writers who were supportive of me and taught me so many things and allowed me the space to breathe and make mistakes and learn,” says Paul. “A lot of [this business] is convincing these companies to trust you, and the only way to do that is through years of hard work.” Making Paul into a “professional example,” I’d say his production experience is crucial to where he is today. To write for television, you need to understand how each line of a script translates to production. “That’s the thing about TV writing. Those producer credits - those people are generally writers. You create content then execute that content,” he says. “You see each of your ideas all the way through the process.” It’s a world where writing talent means nothing without hard work and practical experience - all three of which have culminated for Paul in selling his first original project - an adaptation of a graphic novel he stumbled upon and loved, “HENCH” by Adam Beechen. Bullock’s excitement spills over into our conversation, fighting his hesitation to say too much. He can’t say what network signed until the news breaks officially, and he cautions that he gets to write it, but they decide later whether to make it into a show. “I’ll start writing it next month,” he says.
“So much of writing is revision, and it’s impossible to know where you’re going,” says Bullock. “You have to believe that with hard work and attention to detail you’re going to get somewhere interesting.” Bullock’s life looks like a constant process of revision, his record label ambitions revised to a job in television, that job revised out of existence, revised to “Ed,” then “SVU,” and back to “Ed.” Maybe working in television requires it. When we get off the phone, Paul emails me rapid-fire revisions to our conversation. “Now I am remembering all these things I wanted to say,” his sixth message reads. His thirteenth reads: “Also, I should mention my wife, Rachel. She’s the best writer I’ve ever met and has had more influence on me than any other person. She’s my full-time editor, cheerleader and support system. She’s read every single thing I’ve ever written and has been endlessly supportive through all the crazy ups and downs of my work.” When Bullock wins an Emmy, I can say he sent the first draft of his speech to my inbox. Kurt Jensen ‘11, former Pine Needle editor-in-chief and Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia, now works in Richmond as communications director for three national nonprofits.
We talk a bit about the process of writing, and I remind Paul of a quotation Ron Smith would often use, Sinclair Lewis’s re-telling of Mary Heaton Vorse’s advice: “The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.” Bullock laughs. “It’s a battle of attrition,” he says. “It’s about learning to love the process.”
69
CLASS NOTES Brown Farinholt ’09 Brown Farinholt ’09’s ongoing research in critical infrastructure security and malware analysis sounds like the background of a Tom Clancy novel. But the threats he studies are not the stuff of fanciful spy thrillers, but real dangers in our lives today.
Internet of things — cyber-physical devices like WiFi-controllable light bulbs and other household appliances — gains momentum, we’re going to need to ensure that strangers can’t tamper with devices in your home remotely,” Brown said. “Simultaneously, smartphone ownership will soon eclipse PC ownership in the United States, and mobile platforms like iOS are starting to get hit more frequently by malicious applications designed to steal your personal information or even monitor you.”
Brown, who expects to receive his Ph.D. in computer science in the next four years from the University of California, San Diego, is focused on the security of avionics electronics and communication devices in the power grid. He’s also studying what are known as advanced persistent threats, long-lived and well-funded espionage campaigns that use malware to spy on their targets. During his senior year at Clemson University, Brown wanted to complement his computer engineering degree with research before going to grad school. The work of Dr. Richard Brooks, the department’s lone computer security professor, caught his eye, and he dove into a project that gave journalists in African countries a discreet way to access banned news sites and post stories on human rights violations. “Ordinarily this would merit prison time, or worse, so we developed a cost-effective system that would allow the journalists to exfiltrate their material, as well as access blocked websites, using public computers in Internet cafes,” Brown said. “That project introduced me to the world of computer security and privacy, and I wanted to do more.”
After completing his degree, Brown plans to segue into an engineering position in an industry closely related to one of his areas of research. A link to Brown’s first publication: https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~savage/papers/CCS14MobileCockpit.pdf
Computer security issues are increasingly a part of everyday life. Recent headline news includes breaches at Target, Ashley Madison and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, where hackers stole the personal information of tens of thousands of customers and employees. “As the
Adam M. Lynn ’01, an attorney with Miles &
Grayson S. Goldman ’02 is an emergency
John A. Young III ’03 is the assistant director
Stockbridge P.C., was recognized in January
medicine resident at Conemaugh Memorial
of alumni affairs, chapter programs at the
2015 in “The Talbot Spy” for his participation in
Medical Center in Johnstown, Pa. Grayson has
University of Tennessee.
Talbot Mentors and the successful relationship
been with Conemaugh Memorial since July 2014. Willard P. Milby IV ’04 and his sister Meg (St.
that he and 11-year-old Robby Graham have formed. Outdoor activities may involve an
Michael C. Gray ’02, co-founder and partner of
Catherine’s ’08) established an endowed fund
afternoon at the driving range (a love of
Commonwealth Partners Group, was named one
at Children’s Hospital of Richmond in memory
Adam’s) or exercising Adam’s dogs (a favorite
of Style Weekly’s 2015 Top 40 under 40 young
of their grandfather, Dr. Ralph Ownby, Jr., the
of Robby’s). Adam tries to incorporate
leaders who forge paths, create opportunities
hospital’s first medical director. Part of the
everyday activities into the program which
and help bring Richmond to life. Mike started
annual distribution goes to palliative care for
helps the two connect, and he doesn’t refrain
the Micah Initiative, a tutoring and mentoring
children.
from emphasizing that the benefits go both
program for children in Richmond’s public
ways. “Meeting Robby and his family has
housing communities. Student volunteers
Adrian J. Olsen ’04 is a member of the six-
certainly been one of the highlights of my life
represent 125 houses of worship and have
piece rock band, Avers, that took root in
here on the Eastern Shore,” Adam explained.
mentored 12,000 children in 23 city schools.
Adrian’s studio at Rosemont in Richmond. Last March the group competed in the SXSWeek
“The Grahams have become family to me.” Nelson M. Reveley ’01’s editorial for the
Ten Eyck Wellford, Jr. ’02 was promoted to first
festival in Austin, Texas where they caught the
vice president of Davenport & Co. in Richmond.
attention of music critics, namely James Joiner of “The Daily Beast,” and were well received.
Richmond Times-Dispatch on rapid transit was published Oct. 21. Nelson is a co-coordinator
Evan R. Nasteff ’03 was voted one of three
for the Metro Clergy Committee for Rapid
favorite male actors in Style Weekly’s 2014 Best
Thomas B. Valentine, Jr. ’04 and co-partner,
Transit and a doctoral candidate in religious
of Richmond issue. In February 2015, Evan was
John Epley of New York, NY, launched
studies at the University of Virginia.
cast as King Philip in “The Lion in Winter” at
Richmond River City Corp., a private
the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for its first
investment firm that seeks to acquire and
John H. Cronly ’02 is president of Hampden
full-length theater production in more than a
operate small- to medium-sized U.S. businesses
Hill Custom Building, which won the NARI
decade. This past July, Evan played the part of
generating annual cash flows of $1 million or
Central Virginia Chapter’s Contractor of the
Ethan Swallow in TheatreLAB’s production of
more with identifiable channels for growth.
Year Awards. His firm won two -- one for best
“The Altruists” and most recently played the part
They are ready to partner with business owners
residential kitchen over $70,000 and another
of Eeyore, the donkey in the Children’s Theatre
and managers looking to stay involved, as well
for entire house remodel.
production of “The House at Pooh Corner.”
as those interested in help with succession
70 | StC
planning. Their firm has office space downtown at 1011 E. Main Street. William C. Hardy ’06 serves as the video coordinator for the San Antonio Spurs, but this past summer was put in charge of the Spurs’ summer league team in Salt Lake City. The three-game “season” ended with a 1-2 record, but the experience paired with support from assistant coaches and staff members has William ready to further his career with the organization. Christian P. Harder ’08 graduated from Virginia Tech and received an M.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop program. Christian is a special correspondent for the Richmond TimesDispatch reviewing poetry and creative writing. R. Channing Poole ’09, having called UVA baseball plays for three seasons, was selected to fill in mid-July for the Richmond Flying Squirrels’ broadcaster for the remainder of the 2015 season. Channing commuted from Charlottesville where he is the radio voice for the baseball team and women’s basketball team as well as studio host for football broadcasts. Jay Burnham, the veteran voice of the Squirrels, praised Channing’s performance and execution bringing scouting reports and player background to listeners. William W. Belt III ’10 graduated from Boston College in May 2014 with a B.S. degree. Billy completed prerequisites for veterinary school and entered St. George’s University School of Veterinary Medicine last August. Hunter M. Johnson ’10 celebrated his one-year anniversary with Frito Lay where he has been promoted to district sales manager in Nashville. Ira L. White ’11 was promoted into the first company of the Richmond Ballet II. Through Richmond Ballet’s Minds In Motion outreach program, Ira discovered his love for dance and so began his pursuit of training through The School of Richmond Ballet classes. Over the years, he rose through the ranks of the school, including a year spent in its trainee program and was a member of RBII for three seasons. Cameron S. Barlow ’12, a senior at Christopher Newport University, broke the school interception record with two snags on senior day in early November for a career total of 11. His sophomore year he made the All-South Region Third team for Division III football. Both sophomore and junior year he was first team All Conference.
He began his senior season tied with the interception record of Rod Rodriguez, considered one of the best overall players in CNU history. Adam M. Ball ’13 was named Golfer of the Year by Virginia Sports Information Directors in June. Adam set a VCU season record for scoring average (71.73) in 2014-15 and was named all-Atlantic 10 as well as all-East Region. Alexander T. Beale ’13 studies English and film at Christopher Newport University. He wrote and directed a short film entitled “Haunt Me” that features Daniel M. Conover ’10, who is studying music at William & Mary. Alex credits Upper School teachers Kathleen Thomas for teaching “the importance of communication and preparedness.”, Ron Smith “for getting me to sit down and put words on paper” and Sherman Horner ’86 for awakening his “passion for storytelling.” Marshall Hollerith ’13, a junior at Washington & Lee University, led the ODAC and the Generals in rushing touchdowns (13) for a career total of 35. He was named to the AllODAC team for the third straight year as well as the CoSIDA’s Academic All-District Team. Dallas M. Tarkenton IV ’13, a junior at Mary Washington University, won the 200-yard individual medley (1:55.82) at the recent Gettysburg Invitational in January 2015 and finished third (51.05) in the school’s sweep of the 100 butterfly. J. Baxter Carter, Jr. ’14 was elected and served as president of the freshman class at Randolph Macon College for the 2014-15 academic year.
STC connections reach globally Hanging out in Dean of Student Billy Abbott’s office before graduation last year, Zaid Al-Moghrabi ’15 (middle) learned that Sam Moffatt ’14 (left) was applying for a two-month Department of Defense Project Global Officer Scholarship in Jordan. Sam, a student at Virginia Military Institute, contacted Zaid, a Jordanian native, a few weeks later saying he got the scholarship, but his parents were concerned for his safety traveling and living in the Middle East. Zaid, who is pursuing an engineering degree from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., assured him that Jordan is safe and suggested he show his parents a video that he made with Swayne Martin ’15 of their Jordanian adventures during the summer of 2014. Sam and Zaid connected with Mohammed Sarhan ’14 (right), a student at Davidson College who was also in Jordan on a State Department Critical Language Scholarship. The three alums pictured above hung out this summer at the Citadel in downtown Amman.
71
CLASS NOTES
The Killing Floor: Wade Blackwood ’06 makes a better escape hatch By Sarah Vogelsong ’08 For those who make their living on
In the Chesapeake, a large quantity of that gear is crab pots. Whether
“It just seemed like all these pieces were fitting
“Nobody likes to be told what to do,” said
the water, the thousands of crab
abandoned by fishermen or lost after their lines are cut or capsized by
together to do a good thing,” he said.
Blackwood. “Everyone likes the concept, but
pots marooned on the ocean floor
propellers or barges, those “perfect killing machines” remain on the Bay
and slowly being covered over with
floor, continuing to capture and kill marine species — and not just crabs.
marine fauna are a painful reminder of missed opportunity: equipment lost, crabs uncaught, dollars
Center for Coastal Resources Management and director of the Coastal
But for one enterprising graduate of the Raymond A. Mason School of Business, those opportunities aren’t so much missed as they are untapped.
not going to take our word for it.”
and Peace Corps alumnus who went back to “They’re fairly indiscriminate,” said Kirk Havens, assistant director at VIMS’
unearned.
they need to prove that it actually works. They’re So the self-described “fixer,” the history graduate school for business because he wanted to learn
Slow and steady, he hopes, will win the race.
what made companies tick and what drove the
By working to grow the company organically
intricate process of acquisitions decision-making,
instead of focusing on lobbying policymakers to
made a decision himself: he purchased the
mandate that watermen use the VIMS-developed
exclusive licenses for the devices from William &
biopanels, Blackwood strives to get stakeholders
Marine Resources Commission, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Mary and set about building a company around
committed to the solution he’s selling.
Administration and commercial watermen found that some 50,000 crab
them.
Watershed Program. They’re also fairly extensively scattered. A four-year study conducted by VIMS between 2008 and 2012 in partnership with the Virginia
“I want people to do the right thing,” he said. “It’s
pots are lost or abandoned in Virginia waters every year, leading to the annual loss of roughly 900,000 blue crabs valued at $300,000.
Photo by Adam Ewing
Mobjack, which is approaching its first birthday,
not about making money.”
aims to make it easy for watermen to adopt the Using technology developed at
the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), Wade Blackwood ’06, is
The solution to this “ghost fishing” that VIMS designed is what Blackwood
technological improvement. Blue crab escape
This story ran in the summer 2015 issue of the
calls a “fail safe.” Crab pots have long included escape panels in case a trap
panels sell for $1.50 each and can be retrofitted
William & Mary alumni magazine, W&M. Wade
using his company, Mobjack Binnacle Products, to turn those abandoned
is lost, but they often work imperfectly, either degrading too fast or not at
to a waterman’s current traps. Each panel lasts
graduated from St. Christopher’s in 1993 and
crab pots into ecologically thriving sites while also helping further regional
all or relying on mechanisms that malfunction in the unpredictable ocean
an entire season, meaning, said Blackwood,
serves on the Board of Governors. The online
efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay’s beloved blue crab population.
environment.
“price points shouldn’t be a barrier.”
version of this story can be found at
“It just kind of hit one day,” said Blackwood. “It was just, ‘I need to do this
VIMS put a twist on the traditional design by constructing its escape
now.’”
panel of polyhydroxyalkanoates, a naturally occurring polymer that can
http://wmalumnimagazine.com/2015/summer/
be manipulated like plastic but completely biodegrades in a marine The blue crab, Callinectes sapidus — a name that, fittingly, means “beautiful
environment as bacteria attach to it and consume it as food. The speed
savory swimmer” — is as much a part of the Virginia identity as Thomas
of that process depends on the thickness of the panel and how often it’s
Jefferson or a ham biscuit. John Smith described them as “exceeding
exposed to sunlight, which inhibits the growth of the bacteria. Panels
good and very great” in his Generall Historie of Virginia, and millions of
on abandoned traps, shielded from light, will break down more rapidly,
pounds of the crustacean are harvested every year, making an important contribution to the state economy. In 2008 however, in the face of declining crab harvests and at the request of Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez declared the Chesapeake blue crab fishery a federal disaster, kicking off a wave of regulatory efforts in both states to rebuild the crab population.
allowing trapped creatures to return to freedom unharmed. Elegantly, the trap then becomes a benign part of the environment as species such as oysters attach to it and fish or crustaceans use it as shelter. Tests determined that the panels didn’t reduce catch rates, and prototypes were created for other species, such as lobster and stone crab. Through the College’s Office of Technology Transfer, two related inventions were patented. But then, said Blackwood, “the process just stopped.”
Increased pollution in the Bay and overfishing — particularly of the female
That’s where he came in. With a background in business and a lifetime of
crabs that ensure the continuance of the species — were obvious culprits
experience with Virginia’s waterways, Blackwood, currently the executive
for the decline in the harvests. But a lesser-known problem concerns
director of the American Canoe Association, had noticed the abundance
what is called “marine debris,” a label that encompasses not only the vast
of abandoned crab pots in the Bay firsthand. Researching the problem,
amount of trash that humans produce and that ends up in our waterways
he quickly found that VIMS had a solution to it — but that it wasn’t widely
and oceans, but also lost or abandoned fishing gear.
known.
72 | StC
Watermen have already begun to buy into the
tribe/the-killing-floor/
More recently Blackwood has been pursuing other ecodegradable products, specifically shotgun shell wads and lobster pot tags. Typically made of plastic, which floats, the spent shotgun wads and abandoned tags often mimic jellyfish or dead fish, causing feeding wildlife to eat them and die. “Plastic doesn’t go away, and that’s the next generation of worry,” Wade said. “There’s a sea of plastic out there that breaks into microplastics. We don’t know all of the effects at this point, but our ecodegradable products are a very small part of the solution to a global issue. If we can make these small improvements, it could be a game changer.” Blackwood identified the problem when he found shotgun wads doing beach clean up. While hunters are trained to pick up shotgun shells, the buffer between the powder and the shot is more problematic. Typically made of clear plastic and falling roughly 30 yards out, the wad is difficult to find after firing.
idea, with about 1,000 people currently testing out the device themselves.
Send Us Your News Although St. Christopher’s alumni generously volunteer their time, the school does not designate class agents to gather news. We compile our information from telethons, local newspapers, and often from our best source— proud parents. Please keep us up to date and send news about yourself and your fellow classmates to:
Wade is a principal at GreenOps Ammo, which is dedicated to marketing and producing wads that feel like plastic but sink and degrade into naturally occurring elements. To help with the abandoned lobster pot problem, ecodegradable tags, which commercial fisherman are required to use to identify their equipment, will be sold through Mobjack Binnacle Products. Both products have patents pending.
711 St. Christopher’s Road Richmond, VA 23226 thomask@stcva.org 804-282-3185 phone 804-282-3914 fax
73
22 New Students are
StC Legacies 2015-16 1
Births, Weddings, Deaths
StC Transitions
2 1
3
4
1
2 6 6
3
74 | StC
5
Junior Kindergarten (Mrs. Hunter’s Class) George Jones, son of Dyke Jones ’95 Robert Ayers, son of Mason Ayers ’95 August Price, son of Winston Price ’95 William Logue, son of Eric Logue ’97 Blake Moorman, son of Taylor Moorman ’98 Junior Kindergarten Legacies (Mrs. Sloan’s Class) Charlie Branch, son of Pat Branch III ’90, grandson of Pat Branch Jr. ’65 and Jack Siegel ’57 and great-grandson of Patteson Branch ’39 Henry Peace, son of Chris Peace ’94 Lowndes Peple V, grandson of Lowndes III ’65 and great-grandson of Lowndes Jr. ’33 Charlie Valentine, son of Charles Valentine ’93 and grandson of Charles Valentine ’47 Kindergarten Front row: Asa White, son of Andrew White ’94 Gibson Beck, grandson of Hank Gibson ’67 and great grandson of Ross Gibson ’35 James Carney, son of Brian Carney ’96
Kindergarten Cont. Back row: Atticus Morgan, son of John Morgan IV ’94 and grandson of John Morgan ’65 Stephens Rabb, son of Hugh Rabb ’97, grandson of Rusty Rabb ’59 and greatgrandson of Richard Leary ’27 Sidney Hetherington, son of David Hetherington ’90, grandson of Sidney Davenport ’60 and greatgrandson of Roswell Davenport ’29 Harvie Wilkinson, grandson of Jay Wilkinson ’63 Lane Fishburne, son of Procter Fishburne ’95 Claude Whitehead, grandson of Claude Whitehead ’57
4
Second Grade Bower Edmunds, son of Berkeley Edmunds ’91 and grandson of Dick Edmunds ’49
5
Fourth Grade Taegan Logan, son of Michael Logan ’00 Ned Lumpkin, son of Eddie Lumpkin ’88
6
Fifth Grade Connor Whitaker, son of Todd Whitaker ’91
2
3
4 St. Christopher Weddings
1 2
At the reception of November 2014 wedding for Clay Harris ’02 and Joanna Parker officiated by James Rees ’02.
3
Thomas Pinckney Bryan IV ’00 and Laura Bensabot Beños tied the knot on Halloween 2015.
Andrew Russell Palmer ’06 married Lily He Sept. 19, 2015.
4
Matthew Curtis Conrad ’05 and Eliza Conway Blackwell celebrate with a host of Saints May 2, 2015.
75
TRANSITIONS
Deaths
Weddings Charles Blount Edwards ’81 to Anne Lane, May 30, 2015
Van Nichols Peace, Jr. ’01 to Lindsey Sidney Sullivan, May 9, 2015
Thomas Alfred McCaslin Hovis ’05 to Emily Barrett, Nov. 29, 2014
Charles Purcell Bigger III ’41 of Baton Rouge, La. died Feb. 15, 2015.
Charles Sumner Bailey ’54 of Richmond, Va. died Feb. 23, 2015.
Trevor Pope Hackney ’97 to Erin Konrad, June 5, 2015
Stuart H. Ackerly ’02 to Neha Kumar, Oct. 24
Daniel Carter Gottwald ’06 to Martha Byrne Gibbs, Oct. 31, 2015
John Mays Parr, Jr. ’54, of Lindsborg, Kan. died Jan. 4, 2015.
Eppa Hunton VI ’99 to Dorothy Sarah Elizabeth Cockrell, June 27, 2015
Clayton Moore Harris ’02 to Joanna Parker, Nov. 1, 2014
John George Adams, Sr. ’42 of Sandy Springs, Ga. died April 20, 2015. Survivors include his son John G. Adams, Jr. ’64.
Thomas Pinckney Bryan IV ’00 to Laura Bensabot Beños, Oct. 31, 2015 Dale Peyton Burgess ’00 to Ryan Elizabeth Mitchell, Nov. 1, 2014 Christopher Walker Davey ’00 to Morgan Ashley Horwitz, June 27, 2015 James Thomas Alexander IV ’01 to Priscilla W. Powell, May 16, 2015 Burton Armistead Fuller ’01 to Anne Beverly Morrissett Branch, Oct. 24, 2015 Douglas Eric Melzig ’01 to Lindsay Katharine Millert, May 23, 2015
Joseph Paul Morahan III ’02 to Mary Graham Willoughby, July 25, 2015 Stephen Henry Clement ’03 to Elizabeth Palmer Ellis, Jan. 3, 2015 Ward Gilgan McGroarty ’03 to Genevieve Christine Villari, April 25, 2015 Kirkpatrick Perrow Adamson ’04 to Christina Carson Fast, April 26, 2014 Marshall Cabell French ’04 to Mary Pearson Moore, Sept. 12, 2015 Bryce Carlton Stallings ’04 to Sarah Elizabeth Asman, Dec. 19, 2015 Matthew Curtis Conrad ’05 to Eliza Conway Blackwell, May 2, 2015
William Culvahouse Hardy ’06 to Spencer Lenn Ladd, Aug. 22, 2015 Aaron Carey McCrady ’06 to Kelly Elizabeth Sullivan, Sept. 19, 2015 Andrew Russell Palmer ’06 to Lily He, Sept. 19, 2015 Jacques Joseph Farhi ’07 to Mary Elizabeth Neal, May 30, 2015 Thomas Dimmock Jenkins ’07 to Colleen Landis Cannon, June 27, 2015 Andrew Stewart Lawrence ’07 to Meghan Kathryn Goff, May 23, 2015 August Clarke Gottwald ’08 to Mary Dickinson Joy Darden, Feb. 7, 2015
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher K. Oakey ’92, son Thomas Lindsay, Jan. 19, 2015 Mr. and Mrs. Neil K. Carter ’95, son Edward Penn, March 17, 2015 Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Antrim ’96, son Lee Henderson, March 31, 2015 Mr. and Mrs. E. Collins Doyle III ’96, twin daughters Cameron Atherton and Riley Ann, March 5, 2015
Mr. and Mrs. Lee G. Lester ’98, daughter Madeline Blackburn, Aug. 26, 2015 Mr. and Mrs. Wycliffe S. Lyne, Jr. ’98, son Bowie Sanford, Aug. 31, 2015 Mr. and Mrs. Conard B. Mattox ’98, son Henry Hudgins, Nov. 5, 2014 Mr. and Mrs. Robert K. P. Pinkerton, Jr. ’98, son Theron Louis, Jan. 26, 2015 Mr. and Mrs. Hunter H. Murchison ’00, son Hill Slaughter, Nov. 12, 2014 Mr. and Mrs. R. Joseph Noble ’00, son Robert Baldwin, Oct., 16, 2015
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel T. Towell ’96, daughter Eleanor Carol, Jan. 6, 2015
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick H. Schutt ’00, daughter Peyton Valentine, Aug. 21, 2015
Mr. Mark A. Hudson ’97 and Dr. Samantha H. Hudson, daughter Ziva Chacharyn, Feb. 12, 2015 Mr. and Mrs. Lee B. Krauss ’98, daughter Addison Hannah, July 8, 2015
76 | StC
Charles Morris Terry, Jr. ’44 of Richmond, Va. died May 9, 2015. Survivors include his brother Claiborne W. Terry ’50.
William Forrest Hawkins, MD ’45 of Mt. Pleasant, Mich. died April 13, 2015.
Mr. and Mrs. E. Gibson Luck ’96, daughter Jane Saunders, Aug. 9, 2015
Mr. and Mrs. Douglas P. Whitley ’96, son Ethan James, Nov. 27, 2014
Leigh Carter Budwell ’44 of Cobbs Creek, Va. died June 1, 2015. Survivors include his son L. Carter Budwell, Jr. ’73.
Landon Wellford Garland ’45 of Richmond, Va. died Oct. 20, 2015. Survivors include sons Landon W. Garland, Jr. ’72, Robert W. Garland ’75, and G. Gray Garland ’79 and grandson Hunter E. Garland ’06 and brother Gregory G. Garland ’42.
Births Mr. and Mrs. Stephan Said ’86, son Aydin, Jan. 14, 2015
Thomas Darnley Adamson, Jr. ’44 of Richmond, Va. died Jan. 20, 2015. Survivors include sons T. Darnley Adamson III ’68, William B. Adamson ’71, Guy N. Adamson ’78 as well as grandson David L. Adamson ’93 and great-grandson Lee J. Adamson ’25.
Mr. and Mrs. James G. Stikeleather IV ’00, daughter Elizabeth Mae, Nov. 6, 2014 Mr. and Mrs. Mason L. Antrim ’01, son Charles Kerr, June 24, 2015 Mr. and Mrs. William H. Paulette ’01, daughter Barbara Chartier, Nov. 18, 2014
Mr. and Mrs. John H. H. Cronly ’02, daughter Cecelia Anne, June 18, 2015
Marshall Evans ’46 of Fort Pierce, Fla. died March 10, 2015.
Mr. and Mrs. Wilson M. Flohr ’02, son Wilson Henry, III, May 1, 2015
Edmund Harrison Rucker, Jr. ’47 of Spartanburg, S.C. died March 16, 2015.
Mr. and Mrs. Marshall D. Tucker, Jr. ’02, son Marshall Delano, III, Jan. 18, 2015 Mr. and Mrs. William L. Nicoll ’03, daughter Alden Cope, June 14, 2015 Mr. and Mrs. P. John Hughes, Jr. ’04, son Patrick John, III, Aug. 5, 2015 Mr. and Mrs. John S. Molster, Jr. ’04, son John Sanford III, Sept. 21, 2015 Mr. and Mrs. Taylor S. Brannan ’05, daughter Ainsley Elizabeth, Oct. 31, ’14 Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Cann ’01, daughter Cardin Carrington, Dec. 10, 2015
William Anderson Pusey ’54 of Richmond, Va. died March 6, 2015. Survivors include his son William A. Pusey, Jr. ’84 and grandsons Grayson C. Meck ’16, Hunter C. Meck ’18 and J. Tanner Meck ’21. Peter Rosanelli, Jr. ’54 of Richmond, Va. died Nov. 8, 2014. Survivors include his son Richard C. Rosanelli ’70. Edmund Tompkins DeJarnette, Jr. ‘55 of Ashland, Va. died April 6, 2015. Lewis Hoke Newell, Jr. ’58 of Mechanicsville, Va. died April 10, 2015. Alvin Judson Babcock, Jr. ’59 of Edwards, Colo. died Oct. 15, 2015. Richard Ashby Burleson ’59 of Midlothian, Va. died Aug. 2, 2015. Ernest Perry Buxton ’59 of Newport News, Va. died March 15, 2015. Preston Donald Moses ’61 of Staunton, Va. died Jan. 1, 2015. Walter Levering Hooker ’62 of Boca Grande, Fla. died Dec. 8, 2014. Survivors include his son Walter L. Hooker, Jr. ’86. George Riley Mercer, Jr. ’64 of Richmond, Va. died March 26, 2015. Bernard Brookes Lipford ’65 of Oilville, Va. died June 21, 2013.
John Franklin Hitt ’49 of Nokesville, Va. died May 22, 2015.
James Byrd Horner ’68 of Richmond, Va. died Nov. 18, 2014.
William Aylett Waller ’49 of Nantucket, Mass. died Feb. 27, 2015.
Edward Earl Phillips, Jr. ’70 of Wailuku, Hawaii died Dec. 15, 2014. Survivors include sons Christopher R. Phillips ’93 and Kirk G. Phillips ’94.
Waverley Byrd LaPrade ’50 of Londonderry, Vt. died Jan. 28, 2015.
James D. Freeman, Jr. ’76 of Mount Pleasant, S.C. died Nov. 3. Survivors include his father J. Douglas Freeman, Sr. ’43. Henry Tyler Wilson ’77 of New York City died Aug. 26, 2015. Survivors include his father Henry H. Wilson, Jr., ’43, and brother Harrison M. Wilson ’73. William John Burlee III ’79 of Richmond, Virginia died July 23, 2015. Survivors include sons William J. Burlee IV ’07, Mark C. Burlee ’10, J. Collins Burlee ’13 and half-brother Matthew D. Burlee ’98. John Waller Maloney ’83 of Richmond, Virginia died April 26, 2015. Survivors include brothers Frank C. Maloney IV ’77 and Tucker M. Maloney ’79. Richard Blair Craig, Jr. ’85 of Richmond, Virginia died Feb. 16, 2015. Survivors include his brother Frederick N. H. Craig ’89. Wilson Platt Reed ’91 of Powhatan County died Feb. 9, 2015. Survivors include his father Poulson C. Reed ’61 and brother the Rev. Poulson C. Reed, Jr. ’88. Brendan McClure Marshall Worst ’08 of Richmond, Virginia died Dec. 8, 2014 Quentin Thomas Alcorn ’12 of Richmond, Virginia died June 15, 2015. Survivors include his brother Christian B. Alcorn ’13.
John Wise Wescott ’50 of San Diego, Calif. died Jan. 19, 2015.
Andrew Jackson Bolling III of Richmond, died April 10, 2015. During his 50 years at StC, Jack served as health teacher, business manager, golf coach and athletic trainer and retired in 2014 as the school’s foundation director emeritus. The field house was named in his honor and an annual faculty prize is awarded in his name.
Virginia Lee Hunt of Urbanna, died Jan. 14, 2015. Miss Hunt formerly taught in the Lower School. Maria Miljevec of Richmond, died Feb. 23, 2015. Mrs. “Mil” was a long-time neighbor and enjoyed seeing the Lower School students arrive every morning for another day of learning, activity and fun.
77
Mark Your Calendars
Remember when? Class of 1966
Alumni Reunion Weekend
April 29 - 30 2016
Primer Form—Raps & Taps 1954
Book $50
Third Row: Butler, Peters, Owen, Jenkins, Tompson, Deck, Jemerson, Smith, Dickerson
Second Row: Massey, Clary, Heindl, Rinehart, Epps, Pinder, Bedell, Shue, Cherry, Stevens
Absent: Williams
DVD $25
St. Christopher’s School: Scholars and Gentlemen This story of the school’s first 100 years includes a beautiful commemorative history and foreword by Tom Wolfe ’47.
Doctor’s Dream A documentary video that highlights the heart and soul, the traditions and values that began with Dr. Chamberlayne in 1911 and continue today at St. Christopher’s.
Centennial books and DVDs are available for purchase. Call 804.282.3185 x5312 to place an order. 78 | StC
First Row: (L to R) Bailey, Hester, Gage, Hyde, Flowers, Burton Knowles, Goldston, Pasco, Burke
Finally in the Upper School—Raps & Taps 1963 First Row: (L to R) Crocket, Baldwin, Cherry, Hyde, Pasco, Knowles, Zimmerman, Burke
Third Row: Carrington, Bailey, Smith, Smith, Purcell, Moore, Grinnan, Owen, Smith, Rand, Joachin, Dickinson
Second Row: Epps, Stevens, Bedell, Warwick, Gill, Johns, Gage, Clary, Jenkins
Back Row: Merrick, Cowan, Hester, Battle, Boyd, Miller, Southward, Zaharow Absent: Hutchinson
FPO BULK RATE INDICIA PERMIT # 1732
711 St. Christopher’s Road Richmond, VA 23226 804-282-3185 Fax: 804-285-3914 www.stchristophers.com
“Children learn what they live.” — Dorothy Law Notle, American writer and educator
Honor & Integrity At St. Christopher’s, the Honor System is lived—and learned. From the most recent graduates to those who have celebrated their 50th renunion, 9 out of 10 alumni surveyed say the Honor System followed at St. Christopher’s had the most influence on their careers and lives.
9 out of 10 alumni surveyed
Data from Alumni Survey 2013–2015 conducted by Southeastern Institute of Research.